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zorionek0 t1_jdqg9n7 wrote

Reply to comment by Antique_Total_5473 in Keystone Worker's Agenda - a state worker rights proposal by GraffitiTavern

Part of that unsustainability is runaway corporate profits. Compare the price of sending mail via a public good like the post office to that of UPS or FedEx.

Imagine if instead of free roadways you had to pay a toll every time you left your driveway. 75 years ago we invested in car infrastructure. Today we should invest in train infrastructure.

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Antique_Total_5473 t1_jdqhc8c wrote

Find out the forces behind what keeps us from expanding our rail network. The political contributors and lobbyists, the nimby do gooders, the competitors of rail, the regulators, etc.

Find out why commuters prefer not to use it.

Look into the rail corporations and unions.

I don’t think you have done all your homework. It’s much more complex than you seem to think.

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zorionek0 t1_jdqhoqa wrote

  1. Do really believe that having an oligopoly of 4 class-I railroads operating for profit compared to if we nationalized it and ran it as a public good would mean LESS service and expansion? The rail companies happily take record profits for declining service. The less they spend on crews and actual improvements to rail the happier their shareholders are.

  2. Because the railroads declined to install required safety infra to go above 79 mph for huge swaths of the rail network making rail uncompetitive with early regional airlines.

  3. A concerted government and business campaign to get people into cars rather than onto trains. It’s as much a policy choice as a consumer choice.

  4. Again- CORPORATIONS. I am proposing a national freight carrier (call it Amfreight) that would be responsible for doing all this without concern for profit. Unions are a good thing- the only reason they’ve been demonized is because the ownership hates having to share the fruits of labor’s labor with the actual workers.

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