Given & Taken: The Freedom of Passenger Rail

All cities should ban cars! The building of stroads and urban freeways goes against every sentiment that is held within the definition of a city. In extension, the ever so pro-capitalist, ineffective, and inefficient transportation system the US implements is absolutely against the very definition of what and who made cities in the first place. In the implementation of interstates entire neighborhoods forced out or cut off, and leveled. Car throughput increases, widening lanes, adding lanes, and increasing speed limits as drivers pass the local business and make places meant for urbanism a hazard to even walk in. Consequently, less people walk, and a small constituency and lack of urgency kills upkeep and sidewalks are eventually removed and not replaced. Additionally, more car oriented infrastructure causes the decrease in transit oriented investments, grants, and proposals. Less investment in public entities and large distrust government causes an increase in individualistic behavior. Now, I’m usually all for individualism in a creative sense. In a truly scientific sense factoring in stability, efficiency, and socially, then only using made-up numbers economically is the US's signature move. Apparently, in the US personal independence and car ownership go hand and hand. That statement alone should tell you that the ‘freedom’ a person owns in the US isn’t usually considered by that person as the loss of a ‘freedom’ for another. In other words, a lack of empathy. An example that comes to mind is the demolishing of entire neighborhoods for various US Interstates. A space of culture, friends, lives, history, and memories sacrificed for a machine only sold for you to buy and use. In other words, a total lack of empathy. Forcing what you consider a necessary evil for the sake of securing your own comfort is the cheapest excuse in the US’s arsenal. You can’t just deem anything a necessary evil for your own gain. There’s no way that can be regulated fairly and it's truly a backwards way of thinking. Honestly, this line of belief does seep its way into most US industries. An example would be the banks literally being too big to fail in 2008 or really anytime an economic bubble bursts from the weight of investments that carry no meaning. 

Just how The Netherlands had rapidly learned of the negativities of sprawling car oriented infrastructure. The US in all its wisdom thought it was a good idea to have dove straight in from the 1950s onwards. Of course, bumps and cracks can be found all over US rail history. To get a grasp on how many bumps exactly; between 1885 and 1929, almost every major city in the US suffered at least one streetcar strike. These strikes got so violent at times, they turned into utter massacres. For instance, the San Francisco Streetcar Strike of 1907 killed 30 with about 1000 injured. Even going farther back to the Great Railroad Strike of 1877; an event In which B&O Railroad had 100,000 workers participate increasing down the line only for more than 1,000 to be jailed and some 100 were killed. The 1877 strike held little change within the way operation took place. In a time where gilded  excess was going into overdrive and net worths were rapidly increasing. Industrialists continued to cut wages and break unions. As strikes increased into the early 20th century local change turned into unions, labor laws, child labor laws, and more regulation. The roaring 20s continued with the auto industry lobbying for people off the streets through coining the term “jaywalker” and implementing a traffic safety class to kids. Of course, they ended up teaching the kids that cars were for the streets, not people, As the 30s gave way to a depressed economy and an underfunded system, but an overall steady use and reliability of passenger rail was only on a marginal decline by this point. It became evident by the beginning of the Second World War increased automobile use in America and could be most pronounced in the numerous streetcar or tram US metro systems getting blocked by traffic on a street crossing or other at grade crossing, hindering head times and services. 

The US train boom during the prompted industrial output demand that WWII brought was a distant memory, as by 1960 most US interurbans, trams, and heavy metro rail ceased operation for passengers, as lines were kept for industrial lines. Freedom is a balancing act. A balancing act that’s never mentioned, of which can’t be underestimated. Freedom can’t come in the form of profit monetarily because profit or a surplus is not balanced within any system of meaning, emotion, or connection. Some metros went to bus only or ENTIRELY DISAPPEARED! to get millions in approval money from lobbyist sent by our oil overlords. That, along with a steady diet of defunding public transit, racism, car ownership cost, and absolutely no walkability, create places like; Arlington, Texas (pop. 396,407) with literally no public transit; or Indianapolis, Indiana (pop. 2,103,574) with a current BAN on ALL light rail within the city. Oh yeah, they have no metro, rapid service, light rail, or commuter rail so you can tell shortsighted they are. My all time fave, of course, is Columbus, Ohio (pop. 2,093,185)! Notably, Columbus is actually the largest city in the US with no passenger rail service of any kind whatsoever. Columbus is the state capital of Ohio. In fact; San Antonio, Texas (pop. 2,429,609); Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina (pop. 1,795,750); Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (pop. 1,373,211); Memphis, Tennessee (pop. 1,342,842); Richmond, Virginia (pop. 1,294,204); Louisville, Kentucky (pop. 1,283,430); and Rochester, New York (pop. 1,078,879) have nary a metro rail system or a light rail service. 

The crushing blow is the great wealth of history being squandered by a funeral procession of what are labeled as historical societies giving a publicly funded 21st century propaganda machine endless fuel. All this and the, now consolidated, pair of duopolies control the freight lines that passenger Amtrak service occurs on. This greatly affects the frequency, on-time percentage, travel time, as over time this will absolutely hallow out your ridership. As ridership on a public system decreases and revenue will soon follow, and then with that the quality of the service would decrease. Ultimately, the local station or entire system could close city rail service all together, in effect gutting more public transit services to varying extents. Services that serve local business, dense housing, parks, and city squares end up being the nodes to the most productive and efficient places in a city and can compliment industrial or civic corridors. Local rail transit is truly more than a mode to get there. It’s truly more than a mode of transport because it has the opportunity to become something more. The amazing, yet simple fact is it continues to provide something more; even as the London Underground opened 170 years on. Sure, it’s easy to take it for granted, but by design it builds up the connectivity of an area/district around a station. Personally, I think if the city has a good metro rail system it’s just that easy to take the ease of mobility for granted. It’s a human action to want to move around so of course you would take advantage and not think about the outstretched impact of rail transit in a city. This service of rail transit is truly a public function of society within a city. It shouldn’t be up to largely 4 private railroad companies to determine the level of safety of tracking going through a town they probably didn’t know they went through if even heard of. 

By the 1970s, the entire freight rail industry was steeped in consolidation. At the beginning of the decade excessive regulations, intense competition with trucks, and changing shipping patterns and modes of transport nearly drove the entire US railroad industry to collapse. The Rail Passenger Service Act of 1970 created Amtrak and relieved freight railroads of most of the huge losses ($200 million per year // $850 million today) incurred in passenger service, but conditions continued to deteriorate on the freight side. During the 1970s, most major railroads in the Northeast and several major Midwestern railroads went bankrupt. Bankrupt railroads accounted fora little more than 21 percent. By 1978, the rail share of intercity freight had fallen to 35%. Between 1970 and 1979, the rail industry’s return on investment never exceeded 2.9% and averaged just 2.0%. The rate of return had been falling for decades: it averaged 4.1% in the 1940s, 3.7% in the 1950s, and 2.8% in the 1960s.

The main roadblock with public transit in the US is it’s inherently a socialist type of authority because that’s the only way for it to be functional, reliable, and practical. The toxicity in only thinking in capitalistic means and goals is that the social aspect of the project will be replaced with the attention and addiction to profit. The ability to profit off of public infrastructure in a sustainable way is important, but when it becomes the entire focus and even reason for a project the people using those public fixtures will always get left behind. On that note, 1980 brought with it the Staggers Rail Act. This Act replaced the long held Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. In short, the Staggers Rail Act deregulated the rail industry that the 1887 commerce law was designed to protect. 

The late 1800s were a time of early social movements in the US, and specifically for the railroading sector, a time for the implementation of industry regulations, worker union power, and the awareness of the growing power and wealth of large corporations in America. Following the build up of public outcry, most notably from the Grange movement representing farmers and their families, it was found that state laws regulating interstate railroads were unconstitutional and violated the Commerce Clause of the Constitution. It was a win for the rail public service sector and the longevity for the passenger rail industry as a whole. That’s what it seemed like, but as Bleeding Kansas came before the Civil War. A passion of avoiding the question of fiscal responsibility became ever more contrived as time wore on. Across the planet, as early as four years earlier; in 1863; Belgian Inventor Ètienne Lenoir had driven his so-called “hippomobile” over the 9km from Paris to Joinville-le-Pont and back. This 1860’s equivalent to a Can-Am was powered by Lenoir’s self-crafted gas engine sparked by a turpentine derivative. This is believed to be the first vehicle with an internal combustion, and though not clear at that moment; an event that would shape the US's black and white ideation of ‘freedom.” That is for later however. The hippomobile never made it beyond the development stage; as it was too heavy for any sort of or anything close to mass adoption. Lenoir’s two-stroke engine was capable of producing no more than 100 revolutions per minute equating to 6km/h or just under 4 mph. Undeniably however, what Lenoir started gave way to development of a beginning engine market by Gottli. Thus, the race against technology, policy, and morality began; also known as the automobile industry was born. 

While interstate highways have improved travel times for US citizens, for many in the US, not having access to a car or ride means loss of the right to mobility. Even at its height In the early 20th century, railroads were only thriving because of cheap labor and monopolies. Take that cheap labor away and you get the Class I freight monopolies of today. Passenger rail will never be profitable and goes against everything short-term profit driven capitalism stands for. Passenger rail is a right to mobility for US citizens and should be nationalized and funded by our millionaire class government. 

Just a thought. If we are truly a free nation, why are we so guided by money, vanity, and work? If we are truly a rich nation, why do we have a fraction of modern public infrastructure compared to similar countries? If we are truly a diverse nation, why do we let monopolies form in different industries and allow for the deregulated growth and duplication of such companies. 

The answer is profit. The US is a business no different than any other soulless company. So much of what made the United States a culture hub has been turned into another way to make a buck. Passenger rail is a microcosm of this. Many beautifully designed passenger depots in countless US cities and towns have either been abandoned, demolished, or turned into a store or visitors center in the best of cases. Venture capitalists will say this takes place in the name of “progress”, while the only thing progressing exponentially are the profits given to those who allow and promote such things to happen. Consequently, public amenities and funding deteriorate and normal citizens end up taking on more cost and responsibility for just getting around. 

Just like a lot of issues in the US, what can be perceived as freedom, and touted as such, is just another way to misconstrue the rights of those who see this place for what it is. A business that functions so sadly as one that gets its employees killed by the unfinished and abandoned policies that it, every so often, presents. So interesting how a country that claims freedom can hesitate or even go back on simple calls to action such as; human rights, mobility, or safety. Conservative freedom is truly an oxymoron, and for those who lie to themselves? It is law.