It has now been just about forty years since an interest in entrepreneurship revived simultaneously with the graduation from college of the first wave of the "baby boom" generation of the 1950's. The economic system of the immediate post-WW II era expanded rapidly, but it was both rigidly structured by legislation engineered to protect specific interests, and (temporarily) shielded from international competition since most of the rest of the world was either in chains or in ruins.
Within this framework, the railroad industry had little incentive to become lean and mean. High-value and short-distance freight was being steadily lost to the truckers, but there was plenty left over. Operating railroaders were among the aristocrats of organized labor, and a streamliner or two could be subsidized as a public-relations gesture.
By 1970, when this writer was a college senior majoring in Business Logistics, a handful of forward-thinking firms were recuiting in the house organ of Delta Nu Alpha, the transportation major's honorary. One of the most prominent was Arthur Imperatore's North Bergen, N J-based A-P-A. It didn't get much attention, as it had a very short haul in a region not viewed as promising for business; the "glamour girls" of freight in those years were Yellow Freight, Flying Tigers, and to a lesser extent, Roadway. Most of the rest were viewed as limitied to narrowly-defined markets by the regulatory structure of the time, and constantly fighting the petty corruption and racketeering that was always found in the truck-terminal districts of the large cities.
As for the railroads, they were viewed at the time as likely to devolve into a carrier of last resort, suitable only for what the truckers and barges couldn't, or wouldn't handle. The outspoken John G. Kneiling had pointed out in a well-written Trains article of the time that the carriers' attitude could be summarized as "We have the technology, and you will have to adapt your business to fit it." A couple of innovations, such as Reading's Bee-Line service, which attempted to forego traditional crew-district and job-classification rules to make direct siding-to siding moves of a handful of cars over short distances, were proposed, but never took root.
Most to the regulars here are familiar with the more positive developments which slowly evolved beginning about ten years later. The issue facing the handful of remaining Class I's is lack of capacity, and while the certain rise in the cost of petroleum over the long term is going to give rail carriage and advantage over shorter and shorter distances, this would likely require a return to the four-track mains of an earlier time, and the design of much more sophisticated dispatching and signalling systems.
But meanwhile, Mr. Imperatore, now in retirement, saw the increasing congestion and absolute limits on further highway expansion in the core New York/New Jersey Metro, and proceeded to re-invent the ferry system, now cast aside and ignored by the regulators and labor unions which had allowed it to strangle. There is a lesson here for the would-be rail entrepreneur.
Dozens of functional short lines and regional rails are now in operation, and within the area between the Appalachians and the Rockies, nature provides relatively few obstacles to knitting a few of these together into what Trains editor David Morgan liked to call a "someplace-to-someplace" operation. The lack of previously defined crew districts should aid in the development of marketing measures built around flexible, near on-demand service. And labor relations don't have to descend into all-out warfare; basic hours-of-service considerations were a focal point of the reinvention of the trucking industry during the 1980's.
The creation of a new heavy-duty surface transportation system doesn't have to revolve around some master plan conceived within the insulation of the Beltway. Simple entrepreneurship will take care of that if it is not allowed to be ensnared in politics by the vested interests who feel they have too much to lose.
Within this framework, the railroad industry had little incentive to become lean and mean. High-value and short-distance freight was being steadily lost to the truckers, but there was plenty left over. Operating railroaders were among the aristocrats of organized labor, and a streamliner or two could be subsidized as a public-relations gesture.
By 1970, when this writer was a college senior majoring in Business Logistics, a handful of forward-thinking firms were recuiting in the house organ of Delta Nu Alpha, the transportation major's honorary. One of the most prominent was Arthur Imperatore's North Bergen, N J-based A-P-A. It didn't get much attention, as it had a very short haul in a region not viewed as promising for business; the "glamour girls" of freight in those years were Yellow Freight, Flying Tigers, and to a lesser extent, Roadway. Most of the rest were viewed as limitied to narrowly-defined markets by the regulatory structure of the time, and constantly fighting the petty corruption and racketeering that was always found in the truck-terminal districts of the large cities.
As for the railroads, they were viewed at the time as likely to devolve into a carrier of last resort, suitable only for what the truckers and barges couldn't, or wouldn't handle. The outspoken John G. Kneiling had pointed out in a well-written Trains article of the time that the carriers' attitude could be summarized as "We have the technology, and you will have to adapt your business to fit it." A couple of innovations, such as Reading's Bee-Line service, which attempted to forego traditional crew-district and job-classification rules to make direct siding-to siding moves of a handful of cars over short distances, were proposed, but never took root.
Most to the regulars here are familiar with the more positive developments which slowly evolved beginning about ten years later. The issue facing the handful of remaining Class I's is lack of capacity, and while the certain rise in the cost of petroleum over the long term is going to give rail carriage and advantage over shorter and shorter distances, this would likely require a return to the four-track mains of an earlier time, and the design of much more sophisticated dispatching and signalling systems.
But meanwhile, Mr. Imperatore, now in retirement, saw the increasing congestion and absolute limits on further highway expansion in the core New York/New Jersey Metro, and proceeded to re-invent the ferry system, now cast aside and ignored by the regulators and labor unions which had allowed it to strangle. There is a lesson here for the would-be rail entrepreneur.
Dozens of functional short lines and regional rails are now in operation, and within the area between the Appalachians and the Rockies, nature provides relatively few obstacles to knitting a few of these together into what Trains editor David Morgan liked to call a "someplace-to-someplace" operation. The lack of previously defined crew districts should aid in the development of marketing measures built around flexible, near on-demand service. And labor relations don't have to descend into all-out warfare; basic hours-of-service considerations were a focal point of the reinvention of the trucking industry during the 1980's.
The creation of a new heavy-duty surface transportation system doesn't have to revolve around some master plan conceived within the insulation of the Beltway. Simple entrepreneurship will take care of that if it is not allowed to be ensnared in politics by the vested interests who feel they have too much to lose.
Last edited by 2nd trick op on Mon Feb 19, 2007 9:42 pm, edited 2 times in total.
What a revoltin' development this is! (William Bendix)