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Hello Ole Greenriver, Another perspective is that taxpayers typically don't subsidize freight railroads for hauling freight on their private right of ways, Conrail's bailout aside. We do, however, subsidize the trucking industry's use of highways and interstates. Every long-haul carload of freight taken off the rails is another truckload beating up the asphalt. We pay for new and repaired roads in gas and road maintenance taxes. The trucking industry's taxes don't fully cover the damage they cause. Public policy, rather inadvertently or intentionally, is to support the trucking industry at the expense of railroads. Another way to look at this is that trucks create an expense to taxpayers in two ways: once when we buy a good transported long-haul by truck, to pay for the cost of transportation, and again when we pay for new or repaired highways and freeways. We also pay an expense in the air we breathe. Trucks spew out far more pollution per ton-mile than railroads do. Compare three Dash 9s hauling an intermodal train with 200 containers to 200 trucks going the same distance. And let's face it -- wouldn't we be all a little safer without so many big rigs on the road, not to mention on our city streets? Paul Schmidt Contributing Editor Trains.com
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