In much of what I have written, I refer to the US government’s war with the railroad industry. The government needed transportation and figured out how to get it without paying for it, leaving the private sector to take all the risk.
When it became wildly successful by filling an important need, the industry started doing what comes naturally in Capitalism, figuring out how to make the greatest profitable profit. The government’s response was punitive regulation.
There is a long list of the results of the situation, culminating with the economic collapse of the industry, the drastic reduction of service and routes, a government-owned passenger railroad to provide minimal service on a skeleton network, and a government-owned freight railroad company. But the oppressive regulation continued.
In principle, the regulations provided an environment that encouraged high quality transportation. By specifying rates, railroads had to compete on service. Those that provided the best service generated the best revenue. However, the limitation on rates was so extreme that companies often couldn’t pay for the service they were required to provide.
The government added competing against rail transportation itself, heavily subsidizing and promoting marine, highway, and air transportation. That has led directly to today’s precipitous edge of climate change.
The government’s ‘solution’ was complete economic deregulation and the almost complete abandonment of service requirements. Safety is regulated, but that often involves a cursory glance and occasional inconsequential fines.
In the days before deregulation, the Santa Fe Railway survived quite well by setting a standard for excellence. in all aspects of the business. Its response to air freight, being promoted by the government, eroding some of the light weight, high value cargo was to establish a subsidiary for that business.
The linked video is another example of the government’s position of limiting the success of a railroad company just because it was a railroad company. It is a story of an air freight business that set the standard for safety, service, and innovation that the government killed because it was owned by a railroad company.
We would be a lot better off today if the government had encouraged high standards of safety, service, and innovation instead of providing a free ride to inappropriate modes and artificially limiting the usefulness of rail transportation.
That’s not what happened. Safety is paid lip service, service is an afterthought, and innovation involves figuring out ways to provide minimal service for maximum profit.
The boat is full of water, water is still pouring in, and we are using a spoon to bail it out in an environment that insists that such a big boat can’t sink. A little water here and there can’t hurt a thing.
TAW