Hiding in the Bills

One of the special-interest provisions in the transportation bill that passed the Senate a couple of weeks ago is a requirement that operators of passenger trains be licensed by the Surface Transportation Board. There is one and only one exception: Amtrak.

Supposedly, this could give Amtrak an edge when it competes with other companies for contracts for local commuter-rail service. Since Amtrak has lost business to Veolia and other private rail contractors in many cities, some people think this provision was written to support Amtrak and the transit unions that represent Amtrak employees.

She knows it is viagra from india online not good, she is not happy, she longs for a loving relationship and a mate who treats her kindly. Kamagra viagra order canada Tablets and kamagra jelly can be purchase from online pharmacies but you do require the prescription from a qualified physician or doctor in order to purchase it. Sildenafil was first developed in clinical trials to see how effective they are. generic viagra robertrobb.com But, there’s no need to worry, for thorough treatment method and satisfactory solution is now robertrobb.com canadian discount cialis at your reach. While this seems sinister, it is nowhere near as bad as a provision in the supposedly fiscally conservative House bill that would direct the federal government to write a National Freight Policy. The provision is based on legislation written by the ironically named Representative Adam Smith (D-WA).

It isn’t enough that federal control or funding has made Amtrak and the transit industry some of the least productive parts of the nation’s economy. Now they want to ruin the freight sector as well. That alone made it worthwhile to kill the bill.

Tagged . Bookmark the permalink.

About The Antiplanner

The Antiplanner is a forester and economist with more than fifty years of experience critiquing government land-use and transportation plans.

12 Responses to Hiding in the Bills

  1. LazyReader says:

    Does the Antiplanner have information regarding the “Great Streetcar Scandal”. Some economists argue that the eventual removal of fixed rail sites over neighborhoods would have been inevitable even if GM didn’t lobby on behalf of buses. Streetcars need at level gradient rail of decent working order and power lines to go to given locations. Buses require only the street. Others say if the government had not intervened so much during the Great Depression suburban and interurban railroads would have been all but vanquished.

  2. C. P. Zilliacus says:

    The Antiplanner wrote:

    Supposedly, this could give Amtrak an edge when it competes with other companies for contracts for local commuter-rail service. Since Amtrak has lost business to Veolia and other private rail contractors in many cities, some people think this provision was written to support Amtrak and the transit unions that represent Amtrak employees.

    And it’s interesting to note that even in places where Veolia is providing transportation services, the employees working for Veolia (and other companies) are generally unionized. Bringing in a private company (and Amtrak is not a private company) to provide transportation services is not “union-busting,” no matter what the unions claim.

    Now Veolia and others are in business to earn a profit for their owners, and that is probably what the unions representing Amtrak workers don’t like, for it is reasonable to assume that union negotiators won’t get as good of a deal for their members if they have to negotiate an agreement with Veolia instead of Amtrak.

  3. Sandy Teal says:

    Are Amtrak employees on the federal employee wage system?

    • LazyReader says:

      They are not federal employees so far as I’ve been able to search, they work for the National Railroad Passenger Corporation, the actual name for Amtrak. It’s employees come under the same rules, regulations, and retirement plans as any other railroad. Amtrak is federal and state funded, and in some cases even locally funded. AMTRAK is quasi-government, set up to parameters like a corporation kind of like the TVA. The employees work for the corporation and are not Federal employees. They have different compensation, benefits, etc.

      • C. P. Zilliacus says:

        I believe Lazy is correct.

        I understand that most persons working for Amtrak are covered by the Railroad Retirement Act (RRTA), which is significantly more generous (and more expensive) than Social Security (which is largely funded by FICA and payroll taxes).

  4. LazyReader says:

    While I’m on the subject. The TVA like Amtrak is a quasi-government company. TVA became a model for America’s governmental efforts to modernize Third World agrarian societies, a noble effort but it came with substantial consequences. Ronald Reagan had moved to television as the host and a frequent performer for General Electric Theater in the 50’s. Reagan was later fired by General Electric in 1962 in response to his audacity (or bravery) referring to the TVA as one of the problems associated with big government. The government built over 25 dams. The purpose of which was to contain what was described as those once every 100 year type flood. The Army Engineers set out to solve this problem. They said that it was possible that once in 500 years there could be a total capacity flood that would inundate some 600,000 acres. Well, the engineers fixed that. They made a series of permanent lakes which inundated over a million acres; of course provide a navigable channel from which goods and commerce could flow and provide hydro electricity (inspiring the 1960 film “Wild River”). The resulting hydro power is now far eclipsed by the tons of coal plants and the navigation channels created are largley used to transport the barges of coal needed to keep the coal plants running and the cost of maintaining the channel is such that they could have payed for shipping the coal by rail with money left over. In such large concentration, parts of the lower Tennessee Valley have air quality problems (which sort of inspired another movie “Fire Down Below”). It’s the same problem in Los Angeles which is also in a valley. It’s susceptible to atmospheric inversion in which a layer of warm air holds in the exhausts from road vehicles, airplanes, locomotives, shipping, manufacturing, and other sources (in this case coal plant exhaust).

  5. LazyReader says:

    Oh I forgot to mention, General Electric was the principal provider of steam turbine and generation equipment when the TVA started building coal plants in the 40’s and 50’s.

Leave a Reply