mericafs leeching time
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-ish Rail's track maintenance had its critics but I don't 11 anyone ever alleging that ons became derailed while ionary. Yet that is exactly t has been alleged tin the as a result of neglect and . of investment: trains railing" while standing ire just been catching up on railroad situation in the RS with a fascinating article the July issue of Fleet ler. The American federal arntment's Contrail plan is a of wineor-bust last stand the Beeching rather than Custer principle. It would aye abandoning 7,000 miles lOrtheatatern and Midwestern k, just for starters; the ding up of better piggyback i-rail services; and enaging freight railroads to into read transport. To get neglected track back into ae, the permanent way Ltd be rationalised and ed back to the operators.
be last two proposals have American [hauliers into a of a sweat, and they have 1 bombarding the authorities the dire examples of th Africa and Britain (there —I knew our trail deficits would come in handy sometime). On the other hand, they can see the vast potential for railreplacement freight services if the formerly nail-served areas are not to become "'75-style ghost towns." Their understandable fear is that if the government puts federal finances into railroad track, they're unlikely to give hauliers a free hand to compete.
Fortunately, the Statesponsored Rail Services Planning Office has been doing its dispassionate thing. As Well as seeing the merits of rail for some services, it has the honesty to warn that if the Conrail plan really can provide a service at lower cost than trucks, the piggyback business should boom without any need for railroads to gee into highway trucking; while if Conrail can't do the jab as quickly or cheaply as road haulage, then it would be a mistake to invest in expanding P188Yback.
All horribly tatnilier territory, with an eventual outcome as inevitable as the continued decline of BR. Which reminds me of a :British angle on this, as follows.