Word: railroads
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Government bought itself a lot of headaches during the 1970s when it created Conrail, the freight rail system in the East, and Amtrak, the national passenger railroad. At the time, the entire rail business was chugging toward the scrap pile. More than a decade of refurbishing and streamlining, however, has given railroading a shiny new look. Amtrak and Conrail, stoked by $18 billion in subsidies, have rebuilt their equipment and images...
...faces what may be an even tougher task than running a railroad: getting out of the business. In an effort to uncouple itself from Conrail and Amtrak, the Reagan Administration is causing a commotion among the country's railroads and many of the people who use them...
Transportation Secretary Elizabeth Dole set off howls of protest last week when she announced that the winner of a lengthy bidding battle to buy 85% of Conrail is Norfolk Southern railroad of Norfolk, Va. (The remaining 15% is owned by Conrail employees.) The $1.2 billion purchase would unite two of the three dominant eastern railroads and forge the largest U.S. freight line, with 34,000 miles of track. The third big railroad, CSX, which runs the Chessie and Seaboard lines, complained that the merger would create a giant that would flatten rivals like pennies on a rail. Some companies...
...Administration can also look forward to an uphill grind in removing itself from the passenger-railroad business. The fiscal 1986 budget that President Reagan sent to Congress last week proposes to cut all Government subsidies for Amtrak. The move would save $717 million next year and, according to Dole, about $8 billion over the next decade. It would also probably bring an end to passenger trains on such long-haul routes as Chicago- San Francisco and New York-Savannah...
...Administration argues that Amtrak is a prime candidate for the ax because it carries only 2% of long-haul passenger traffic (vs. 86% for airlines and 12% for buses). Moreover, Dole maintains, the railroad is a gravy train for middle- and upper-income passengers. A survey of riders in the Northeast showed that 55% had incomes of $30,000 or more...