Is it time for the United States to nationalize the railroads?

[thunder rising]

Railroad? What happened to the railroads?

When the country is facing an energy crisis and the most efficient means of transportation is not able to increase it's market share of the long haul market, something is drastically wrong.

This post is to introduce the idea that the United States would be better served by nationalizing the road beds and charging tolls on the train companies. The model would be the same as the turnpike system (or even the US Highway system). The road beds would be open use and create many more railroad shipping companies and increase competition. As it is, one company owns the bed and competition is stifled.

The roadbeds have been "slum lorded" to death. Hence the many derailments. It's time for the US to take action on the railroad industry. What say you?

[bbinacan]

1. And Amtrak has worked so well.

:eyes:

[Vincardog]

2. The auto industry will not allow the powers that be to have Amtrak in completion with them.

These are the same people who bought and ripped out the mass transit systems from the 1800s.

[madrchsod]

4. actually amtrak has worked as well as could be expected

for what they have to work with.

[thunder rising]

6. Oh, I didn't know Amtrak hauled freight. Passenger railroad service may come back into vogue.

The highway transportation industry was created on cheap oil. Oil for fuel, oil for the roadbeds.

Amtrak may well become viable as gas prices go up.

[Jed Dilligan]

9. Amtrak is profitable in California already,

we're even having problems with full trains at rush hour.

[Stinky The Clown]

11. That's unfair

AMTRAK would be a huge asset if it was supported. The Repubics (who else??) are trying to kill it to favor big bidniss.

Rail is the cheapest cost per ton/mile or person/mile of anything other than river barges.

[Yael]

3. They have been propping up Amtrak for years and years now

I agree. The oil companies and railroads should be nationalized ASAP.

[msongs]

5. so cal is overrun with for-profit rail due to the ports. the rr companies are doing well

ports of LA and Long Beach generate hundreds of miles (a guess) of freight trains every day, and it seems like half of them go through our city, which has mostly grade level crossings. miles of trains all full of containers labelled "china Shipping", or auto transporters heading east full and west empty. then there are the coal trains going to the ports full and back east empty.
some crossings one must wait for 2 or 3 trains in sequence.

methinks one major obstacle to more rail is trucking industry in some way or another.

Msongs

[thunder rising]

7. The trucking industry is oil intensive and the railroads are now NECESSARY

The railroads have the opportunity to lead on biodiesel development and use. I am waiting for permission to post this article but take a look at what I call "pond scum technology". Railroads can actually decrease their rates while the trucking industry shrinks due to oil prices.

However, the roadbeds must be nationalized to allow more competition across the country.

[Elidor]

8. Little chance of that happening in our present environment

But I'd love to see the gopers' heads explode at the mention of nationalization. If an idea like this ever made it to serious contention in the house, there'd be a massive republican hissyfit and cries of "Castro!"

I'd certainly be willing to take some of the public money out of oil company subsidies (all of it, actually!) and use it to improve the rail infrastructure, though I wouldn't trust the rail companies to do it themselves.

[Thothmes]

10. Maybe we need the same folks that oversee FEMA

to oversee the nations railroad system. Makes sense to me.

[Elidor]

12. Lol, that's not quite what I was suggesting

I was talking about funding for improvements, with congressional oversight, not a new federal agency.

Speaking of FEMA, there was a time when it was a good agency, with a lot of talented professionals. It had more funding back then, too.

[Thothmes]

14. Not sure which FEMA you are use to dealing with

but in the late 90s we were hit with several portions of hurricanes. A lot of flooding, wind damage. Not a FEMA rep in site. The State did a reasonably good job, but Federal support was conspicuously absent

[Rageneau]

13. Railroads, heck -- it's the OIL companies we should nationalize.

Or, at the very least, there should be a government owned oil company with its own refineries and distribution that is required by law to sell at three cents ABOVE the lowest possible price. Let the other oil companies try to raise prices beyond that and they will price themselves out of profits.

[reformedrethug]

15. Then we

better get busy building refineries in this country then. Most of our refineries are concentrated in the deep south which also makes them vunerable to Katrina like storms. We need at least 2 refineries in each region of the country to make your idea work. That way if one or two went down for what ever reason we would have enough others to take up the slack until they came back online. The problem today is twofold, one is the fact that it is almost too expensive to build a new refinery and the NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) mentality of people in this country. We all want cheaper oil products but nobody wants a new refinery in their area, something has to give somewhere or we are screwed.

[Spider Jerusalem]

17. How, precisely, will that work out?

Considering that the US doesn't produce anywhere near enough petroleum to meet domestic demand, and that the per-barrel price of oil is set on world markets, which nationalising all domestic reserves won't affect a bit (since it's still necessary to import a very significant portion of the oil consumed here)?

[Strelnikov_]

18. Not to mention the 'Tragedy of the Commons' dynamic that would quickly

perpetuate overconsumption and lead to shortages.

The ability for the US to manage the price of petroleum prices flew the coop when we crossed the 20% imports threshold.

[Strelnikov_]

16. I agree, and have been promoting this for a while now

I think the analogy is air transport. Airports are owned by a local authority. Traffic is managed by a Federal authority.

Rail beds would be owned by regional rail authorities, with traffic managed by a federal authority.

Remember, one reason truck transport took off was to avoid the railroad monopoly.