Time To Re-Invent the Iron Horse?

OK, let's see if I can make my point this way.

Many of our present rail main lines are operating at or near capacity. As Don Phillips points out in this month's Trains, the financial community is finally beginning to see the light about investing in very expensive rail infrastructure, but this will take time. And take it from one employed in a just-in-time culture with very high turnover, the supply of competent truck drivers is extremely tight.

Knitting a couple of regionals and short lines together might make rail carriage economically competitive for somewhat-smaller shipments, over somewhat-shorter distances. This is not going to pose a threat to the Class Is' control of the high-volume, high-demand intermodal/unit train traffic, and the possibility of door-to-door service, something along the lines of the "exclusive use" rates offered by truckers, might allow the development of a whole new class of business. Short-notice availablilty, rather than grades and curves, is the prime criterion here.

Perhaps the closest paralell I can cite from history would be the Midwestern narrow-gauge boomlet of the 1880's which spawned a brief dream of an all-narrow-gauge network from Ohio to Texas. That really isn't intended as an example, but receptivenes toward innovation and entrepreneurship is now likely at its highest point in many a year.

I like your idea, and it seems to be happening with the resurgence in short lines. However, your idea is as old as the 19th century, with the alphabet soup lines out east and the Rock Island - Rio Grande - Western Pacific competing with the much stronger major lines.

Another old idea that's getting attention again is the terminal/transfer railroad. There's a big future for these railroads, quickly assembling single cars into what acts as a unit train for the Class Ones to take from city to city. BNSF, NS, CSX, etc. then hand these trains off to another terminal railroad to deliver the carload to the customer's doorstep.

As an example, see Progressive Rail in the Twin Cities, a shortline that's managed to revitalize several short stretches of ex-Soo Line and Milwaukee Road track around the Twin Cities by providing punctual service. They still interchange with mainly the CP, but do the busy work of assembling trains for CP to run.

what would be great would be if a short line could assemble a train , then run it over a class one to the destination .
a kind of open access , but restricted to railrods originating traffic .

Hello,

I recently got my monthly Professional Engineering Newsletter that had a little snippit of information in it. It pointed out that railroads once ownewd 1/12 of the land in the United States!! Now, they didn't go out and buy it. They received it from the Government as land grants to develope trhe railroads, which in turn developed the land. I seem to remember a quote from a history program on this where some citizen angrily confronted a Government Official about "selling land to the railroads at 12 cents an acre", or something to that affect. The government official responded "And that is all it will ever be worth if we don't do what we're doin now."

The Government has always had a hand in economic developement. Whether it's Rome or now. I think in the U.S., private enterprise guides and drives ther Government's involvement, where in Europe it may lean toward the opposite. But in all cases, both Government and private enterprise are involved.

And I think it's clear that without Government intervening in some way, a "new" transportation system will never happen. At it's very basic, this system will need the power of Emminent Domain. That is inherently a power of government.

As regards Mr. Benton's suggestion, my preference at this time would be to allow and "alternative rail system" to evolve wth a minimum of governmental participation and/or interference.

My thinkng is simply that such a service might prove suitable for only certain customers and/or localities. Many commodities will tolerate average speeds more suited to barges or pipelines, if a number of carloads can be delivered siding to siding at a very low price, thereby giving the carrier more flexibility in scheduling. The political and regulatory climate will also vary from state to state.

It would be very challenging to predict what might happen if the regulatory/work rules straight-jacket were loosened a bit further, but as I've noted in another thread, the trucking industry simply does not have the capability to take up the slack that it had in 1972, for several reasons.