| Posted by xBNSFer on January 7, 2023 | |
I don't think the "creation" of Conrail started the road back. It was the passage of the Staggers Act and the shedding of commuter services and the modernization of work rules that started the road back. It was these "systemic" issues that made railroads a money losing business (in the northeast in particular), and the "creation of" Conrail didn't "fix" that. Before Staggers, and even after billions were spent rebuilding track, acquiring new locomotives and rail cars, and even giving Conrail property tax abatements, and without ANY *real* rail competition in its primary east coast markets of NY and Boston (unlike PC, who had to contend with in-mode competition with EL and LV-N&W and to a lesser extent B&O-RDG-CNJ), Conrail STILL lost $1,000,000 per day, just like Penn Central.
The same "variety of factors" would have pushed all of the northeast railroads into bankruptcy, given the "systemic" issues, even if the PC merger never occurred, but it wouldn't have happened quite as fast given the mass confusion that reigned after the merger took place. The PC merger never should have been permitted, since it was anti-competitive, in particular since the very "cost efficiencies" that were the basis of the touted "benefits" of the PC merger would subsequently be denied by the ICC at every turn.
Think of Conrail as a "necessary evil" - necessary to show the US government just how big a mess they created by subsidizing every alternative (automobiles, airlines, trucking, and inland water transport) to rail transport while simultaneously treating/regulating rail transport like it held a monopoly on intercity transport. As for the PC merger, think of it as throwing some gasoline on a fire that was already out of control. The PC merger didn't cause the problems, it just highlighted them for all to see.
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