New Rail Study

[Brakie]

"try to mitigate this and prevent government from picking the winners and losers."
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This is exactly what happen with Ike's and the trucking industries' interstates..The losers was the railroads and of course as a back draft the railroads had to get Federal help.In the mean time the airlines was killing the passenger train and the USPS shifted from rail to trucks and the end result was more Government "bailouts" for the railroads and the death of the remaining passenger trains..Enter the "Big lie" on how Amtrak was going to save the passenger train and be self sufficient in 15 years.

Today under Amtrak and their tight operating budget you simply can't take a train from Columbus,Oh to (say) Chicago or New York..Greyhound Bus is the only public mode of ground transportation to Chicago or New York from Columbus.

Eisenhower actually built the Interstate system for defense purposes, not for the trucking industry.

That was the popular belief at that time however,defense had little to do with the interstates that was pushed by the trucking industry by lobbying and political support..After all WWII proved war material could move by rail in a timely manner.

Even today the military depends on rail for moving equipment-just like they do in other countries where they maintain bases.