A New Report Makes Case for a Public Takeover
Jake Johnson for Common Dreams
In East Palestine,
Ohio, a Norfolk Southern train carrying hazardous materials wrecked, sparking a
public health crisis and national outcry. More rail workers have been killed on the job in
notoriously unsafe conditions. Train after train has derailed.
Such disasters have come as no surprise to rail workers on
the frontlines, who have long warned that the corporate-dominated U.S. system
is a threat to public safety, employees, and the climate.
But a new report argues
it doesn't have to be that way—and envisions an alternative: a publicly owned
rail system that saves money, creates jobs, protects workers and the public,
and aids the badly needed transition to a green transportation system.
"The structure of the railroad industry in the United States constitutes a massive and ongoing missed opportunity," wrote Kira McDonald, a fellow at the Climate and Community Institute and the lead author of "From Margins to Growth: The Economic Case for a Public Rail System," an analysis published Tuesday by the Public Rail Now campaign and Railroad Workers United.
"Freight service is in decline, and passenger service lags enormously behind international peers," McDonald continued. "Long-term trends of decreased freight service, decreased market share, and decreased employment have accelerated in recent years, particularly with the advent of precision-scheduled railroading (PSR) across most Class 1 railroads. In many ways, these are predictable consequences of how the industry is structured: as a set of massive, largely underregulated, regional duopolies."
Just a handful of private companies control
the majority of the U.S. freight rail network, leaving large swaths of the
country with access to just one or two privatized railroads. The heavily
concentrated rail industry's model of maintaining "supernormal
profits" and delivering for shareholders by slashing investment, McDonald
wrote, runs directly counter to public priorities, including expanded passenger service.
Amtrak, the United States' passenger rail corporation, is
managed as a for-profit company and "runs passenger service on tracks that
are typically owned by the private Class 1 railroads," McDonald observed.
While private railroads are by law required to give preferential treatment to
Amtrak's passenger trains over freight, "this has rarely been
enforced," leading to often terrible performance.
Bringing the U.S. rail system under public ownership, the
new report argues, would be transformational, allowing for greater investment
in passenger and freight rail and thus helping to shift away from costly and
heavily polluting on-road transportation.
The report estimates that under an ambitious reform scenario
that entails a publicly owned high-speed passenger rail network and other major
developments, the U.S. by 2050 "could save up to $400 billion annually on
shipping costs; avert over $190 billion annually in averted public health,
environmental, and fiscal costs; create 180,000 new jobs in the railroad
sector; and create up to four million other new jobs throughout the economy
through indirect economic effects."
Transforming the U.S. rail system is almost certainly a
"climate necessity," McDonald argued, noting that "current plans
to decarbonize transportation within the U.S., particularly on a timeline
consistent with even 2°C of warming, are extremely tenuous, to the point of
implausibility."
Massively shifting passenger and freight transport to rail
could help the U.S. avoid the "equivalent to 2% of the world's remaining
carbon budget to maintain a 50% chance of staying within 1.5°C of warming, as
of 2023," McDonald wrote.
While the report does not detail precisely how U.S. railroads should be brought under public ownership, it notes that "a comparative analysis of railroad institutions and international practices indicate the promise of public ownership, particularly when paired with integrated public operation."
"Public operation predominates among the most
successful and intensely used rail systems internationally," pointing to
Switzerland, South Korea, and Germany as examples of countries with rail
systems that are largely owned by the public.
Tommy Carden, associate director of the Green Locomotive
Project at Warehouse Workers for Justice, said in a
statement that the new report "clearly demonstrates that under public
ownership, working Americans would benefit enormously."
"Class 1 railroads are hoarding wealth that could be
used to invest in and expand the rail industry," said Carden. "We
must continue to advocate for the massive amounts of infrastructure that rail
electrification will require while also pushing for the adoption of
low-emission locomotives built by union workers as we continue to work towards
achieving full rail electrification."
Eric Basir, a union steward with the Amalgamated Transit
Union Local 308, said he has witnessed firsthand "how private ownership of
railroads is responsible for the destruction of our environment and good union
jobs."
"It will only worsen," Basir added, "until
the people who live in this country have control and accountability powers over
the railroads."
