Word: conrail
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...seemed so simple. Two and a half years ago, as Congress sought ways to rescue the Northeast's dying railroads, the advocates of the Consolidated Rail Corp., or Conrail for short, had all the answers. Basing their predictions on optimistic extrapolations, they promised that a unification of the region's six roads,* plus a one-time federal grant of $2 billion, would produce an efficient system that would be riding in the black...
Unfortunately, things did not turn out that way. Despite the $2 billion infusion, Conrail is now losing far more money than the six decrepit lines did collectively before the consolidation. After a 1977 loss of $367 million, Conrail is rumbling toward a deficit of more than $400 million this year, and the trend is definitely downgrade. So perilous is its financial position that the House at last week's end was driving toward following the Senate's example and passing an emergency bill that would give Conrail another $1.3 billion. Even so, the U.S. Railway Association, the agency...
...nation's largest rail system, Conrail has annual revenues of $3.3 billion, 90,000 employees and 34,000 miles of track crisscrossing the Northeast, stretching west to Missouri and north to Canada. Though most of its business is freight, it also carries 360,000 commuters each weekday to New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Chicago. For all these superlatives, Conrail continues to hemorrhage money because its equipment was in worse shape and its labor force was more featherbedded than almost anyone in Washington had suspected...
...Conrail inherited such a hodgepodge of worn-out equipment that even after $600 million in repairs, much of the rolling stock is still unreliable. At any moment, 12.4% of Conrail's 140,000 freight cars are either laid up for repairs or on the verge of breakdown...
...Valley Regional Planning Commission, with the aid of two banks, organized more than 1,000 car pools. Bicyclists now weave through the streets. Botany '500' is using delivery trucks to bring 300 workers to its clothing-manufacturing plant; another company has rented a fleet of private buses. ConRail, now handling double its normal number of commuters, has reactivated mothballed equipment. Municipal agencies and many firms have staggered working hours, giving employees the option to come in any time between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. and leave after putting in eight hours. Police are lenient about parking violations. City...