Let’s see:

You have ONE qualified crew on a train vs. thousands upon thousands of truck drivers on the roads. Don’t tell me the odds are in favor of trucks not slipping up. The more people on the roads, the more chances of errors. And don’t forget to mix in the number of idiot CAR drivers in there that truckers have to negotiate, not too mention the long hours they have. Who knows if that truck that’s passing you at 80 mph on your local urban interstate isn’t tired, drunk, or distracted?

On top of that, the state of Ohio (in which I live) just recently raised the truck speed limit to that of passenger cars, AS WELL AS raising the weight load limit. So, not only are the trucks heavier, but they’re going faster on already dangerously congested and narrow freeways.

I’ll take being stopped for a train any day versus having a truck blow out a tire at 75 mph and take me out with it. Safer my ASS.

The railroads are businesses that is true but they are also a utility that America can’t live without. The rails are a utility but the companies that run the trains on them operate like a business that’s the great thing about this country, everywhere else the railroads are nationalized. Only the major railroads are publicly traded business the other 540+ railroads are privately owned and operated, most of witch don’t really see any government dollars. Their really no different than a local trucking company. What the major railroads are asking for is aide in construction to adding on and improving infrastructure, not for regular maintenance. It’s like if J.B. Hunt and Swift trucking companies would go and ask the government to build onto their infrastructure, but they do not maintain it or own it, the highway and interstate systems are utilities and publicly trade trucking companies like J.B Hunt and Swift profit off that, there are publicly traded companies too. I not saying that a bad thing but you can’t blame the railroads for asking for help in construction, their not making Exxon mobile profits. It’s not that the railroads won’t be able to afford to pay the cost to increasing their capacity in the long run, they can’t afford to make so many improvements at once that future freight figures are showing is coming soon. Yes, this economy has had an effect on those figures, but once we are out of the recession traffic on both railways and highways is going to skyrocket and the railroads want to take care of improvements sooner rather than later and won’t be able to meet the demands and all that freight will spill onto the highways making traffic difficult and maintenance a nightmare. You said it yourself the rail lines are at capacity when the economy is well. The Metropolitan highways and interstates are the ones that need money the most not routes like I-40 and I-80 were most of that traffic is coming from afar distance (now improving where those highways go past and into cities could use improving.) At least if more long-haul freight were moved by rail than less tax dollars would be spent on the long distance interstates and more could be spent on improving the urban highways.

I not trying to cherry pick I am trying to state the key issues that politicians are looking into. Things need to change on both fronts. The way that truckers are treated and how their licensing fees, taxes on equipment, etc. are spent needs to be resolved. I admit you probably have a better understanding of the inner workings of the trucking industry, and I hope you think I have a better understanding on how the rail industry operates. The whole reason I even commented on Gruskins article is because I am tired of people thinking railroads like their old, slow, and outdated when they have no idea how far they’ve come from the 60′s and 70′s. They aren’t the railroads that are still instilled in the back of most Americans heads, they are trying to advertise and show they are useful and can meet Americas on time demands into the 21st century. Modern day railroading is completely different from the “golden age” of the industry.

The interstate system was designed and built for Defense and INTERSTATE COMMERCE! Those were the two main factors driving the project. It was not built for passenger vehicles nearly as much as for truck freight. Changing history doesnt make it so. That said, trucking also pays a large percentage of the cost of highway construction and maintenance: fuel taxes arent the only monies going into the pot as all sorts of other fees and taxes are involved-like taxes on equipment, licensing fees,etc.And, that money is NOT going for strict highway construction and maintenance-over 30% goes off the top to ecological crap, ‘rails-to-trails’, arts projects, museums, bike paths, mass transit in cities-and RAIL!! Who do you think funds Amtrak? Now, we have the situation of govt funding inter-modal facilities and calling them ‘highway congestion mitigation’ projects. So, trucking pays part of the rail costs-and there sure arent any trucking companies getting big federal bucks to improve their rolling stock, increase their efficiency and make money at the taxpayer’s expense. Again, if rail is to be treated as a public utility, they should be tax-payer owned . . no big stock dividends going into private pockets. And, since I’ve never seen anybody ship any freight bigger than a breadbox on public transportation (city bus/light rail), if you were to take the taxes trucking pays out of the mix, none of those would exist. . .both are very heavily subsidized. Lets face facts: passenger cars arent paying their own way here. Government wants trucking to pay more and more of the cost to get less and less. I guess I dont blame rail for trying to get more tax dollars; trucking would too but they have less success with it. A very few big-dollar rail investors can pay lobbyists with deeper pockets than thousands of small trucking companies so rail gets the $$.

I understand the desire for more rail freight-but the rails are essentially at capacity when the economy is humming along well. The fast trains and dedicated inter-modal lines dont yet exist and are the reason for this whole discussion. Somebody has to pay for this pie-in-the-sky and the rails dont intend to pay for it themselves as the extremely high cost of upgrading their infrastructure would cause them to raise freight rates to the point they arent competitive with trucking. We cant get cheap Chinese labor to build out the rails anymore.

I agree the highways are a total mess. But gridlock is caused less by trucks than idiot work schedules and planning that tries to send thousands of small vehicles into the same area at the same time five days a week. Many of those people should be telecommuting wherever possible. Mass transit doesnt appear to work except where population density is so high nobody wants to live there. The only other place I see this kind of gridlock is heading into the inter-modal ports and railyards. I understand where you’re coming from, but you either dont have the facts or are choosing to cherry-pick them. You’re trying to pee on my leg and tell me it’s raining!

With freight traffic expected to double over the next two decades we need to find ways to haul this freight easily and quickly. Investing in long-haul rail is a better investment right now over continuing to patch up our interstate system. Railroads own, construct, maintain, and pay taxes on their own infrastructure with little help at all. Trucking companies require their own infrastructure too, they just don’t compensate nearly enough for the use they get out of it. Interstates and highways are funded by taxpayers through the government. No trucking company could function with out the government paying for the up keep of the highway system that trucks do the most of the damage too. Interstates were built more for passenger travel and defense against an invasion from a foreign power, not for so much commercial usage that it is taking today. Congestion is going to become to big of a problem that will ultimately hurt truckers in trying to make shipments on time and quickly unless some of the freight is diverted somehow. The federal and state governments can’t afford to rebuild a segment of interstate highway every decade let alone add more lanes. That’s why many states like Virgina are investing more money into rail corridors to ease congestion and maintenance.

With more freight capacity that is going to be in the near future; it is going to be cheaper and easier to use a a form of transportation that is built for quick, heavy, long-haul freight movements. Tracks can be constructed faster, cheaper, and haul greater volumes of freight than a new highway lane. BNSF Railway just completed construction of a third mainline 16 mile long track coming out of San Bernardino in less than a year and that included building bridges, culverts, and day-lighting two tunnels in treacherous mountain terrain.

Intermodal movements on rail which consist of both shipping containers and truck trailers is now the number on revenue generator for the entire industry. They are strictly point A to point B unit trains that don’t stop at rail yards to switch containers between trains (at least not in North America.) They are also lighter trains and are able to achieve highway speeds and up. This allows them to cross the country just as, if not faster than a truck, and not stopping for anything other than a crew change and refueling. These are high priority trains meaning they have the higher priority over other trains like coal, or mix freight (box cars, flatcars, etc.). Intermodal consists are JIT Freight and very important freight that has a strict schedule to keep and make sure the trailer or container gets to the customer quickly and on time; this is not the old method of loading a boxcar and having to put the train through a whole mail sorting process every time it gets to a yard eating up time. Boxcars and flatcars today are mainly used for big bulky industrial products.

Any economist will tell you that we need to invest into the nation’s Rail infrastructure and urban highways so we don’t go from a financial crisis to a transportation gridlock crisis.