WREAKING VENGEANCE ON THE ROBBER BARONS? :

Congress Should Call Amtrak's Bluff (Wendell Cox, 6/24/02, Heritage Foundation)

After five years of mismanagement and deception, Amtrak's new and highly touted management has unwisely raised the stakes beyond credibility. [...]

The Bush Administration should meet this challenge head on and implement a strategy to keep Amtrak's profitable service lines in operation. The administration should seek whatever legal or administrative strategy available to bring Amtrak under control. Either bankruptcy or a form of federal administration, under which a trustee would continue to operate trains and undertake the financial reforms that have so long been avoided by Amtrak's management and board of directors. Whether they know it or not, Dave Gunn, the Congress and the Bush Administration are embroiled in a game of brinkmanship and Mr. Gunn has raised the stakes well beyond what he or Amtrak can sustain. Neither Congress nor the President should blink.

It's unclear to me why the rails should be the one area of transportation where free market laws apply. The government is up to its neck in highways, shipping, air, and space--what makes the railroads so different? Should we close certain national highways because not enough people use them?

Even libertarians typically pay lip service to the need to have a transportation system that the central government has some legitimate role in maintaining. Why not railways? Can anyone help here?

Posted by Orrin Judd at June 24, 2002 8:29 PM