https://youtu.be/PZdA10b-tgY
This is the dream of American Rail nearly two years ago. Well narrated, good visuals and a hopeful message.
Sadly, the national and international financial situation has changed dramatically.
The regulatory hurdles haven't really changed to the degree that they're encouraging or allowing the expansion of safe, reliable train transportation.
The core regulatory agency, the Surface Transportation Board remains firmly in the hands of the top tier of freight transportation companies. Those companies jealously guard existing and even abandoned rights of way from being used by passenger rail.
Just briefly mentioned in the video above, is the opposition to rail by Southwest Airlines.
They see passenger rail as competition rather than a potential supplement to air transport.
Airlines like to claim that government will be funding rail transit and condemn government intervention in the free market.
They steer any discussion away from the fact that airline companies are heavily subsidized by the government as well.
In the past growth of airports was limited to what private, for profit, airlines could invest in airports. Just like railroads before them, it wasn't until the federal government made major financial investments in the industry that they expanded extensively.
Government bailouts are nothing new. The wealthy and politically connected got subsidized, while in the midst of numerous financial crises, the public got little.
Public anger led to massive labor unrest and undermining of popular support for the establishment and its government.
Look up the Pullman Strike, the creation of the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC), Haymarket Square, the development of unions in the United States prior to the Hays Act of 1935 which made unions legal, the development of armories and the use of the National Guard and the Pinkertons.
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