Let me put in a plug for Peter Galuszka’s column this week, “Forget Passenger Rail,” which is based upon recent remarks by Norfolk Southern CEO Charles Moorman. Here’s the thrust of the column: Moorman doesn’t see much future for passenger rail in the United States: The political will doesn’t exist to build it. But he does foresee a bright future for freight rail. And public-private partnerships with the freight rail companies could make sense.
Here’s my spin on Peter’s story. Instead of flogging the fantasy of high-speed, inter-city passenger rail, wasting money and creativity on studies that will lead to nothing, Virginians should focus on working with the freight railroads to divert millions of trucks off the roads and highways.
Freight rail in the United States is muscular and robust: It kicks sand in the face of that scrawny weakling, passenger rail. Freight rail, unlike passenger rail, is profitable. Freight rail carriers spend billions of dollars annually upgrading their systems — the capital budget of Norfolk Southern alone is $1.4 billion this year. Bottom line for taxpayers: Freight rail is a transportation mode that pays its own way.
Of course, there’s only so much that Norfolk Southern and other railroads can do by themselves. They have to generate competitive returns on investment or they will be punished by the money lords of Wall Street. That means they are unwilling to invest in an array of projects that might offer important social benefits, such as getting even more trucks off congested highways.
I’m one of those anti-tax zealots that Peter has little patience with, so I’m not persuaded that subsidizing rail, even freight rail, is a good idea under any circumstances. But if we’re determined to do so, we’d be better off focusing our attention on partnering with Norfolk Southern and CSX rather than pursuing pipe dreams like a Bristol-Richmond-Washington rail corridor.
(Photo credit of Norfolk Southern and CSX trains: Pentrex Railroad Videos and Books.)
