Who Tore Up the Tracks? · Episode 10 of 24 · 22 min
The Freight Verdict: Trucks, Staggers, and the Railroad That Survived
The American railroad did not die; it shed its passengers and became one of the most profitable industries in the country. Trucks took short hauls on roads they did not pay to build, and the ICC held railroads in a straitjacket until the Staggers Rail Act of 1980. Freight boomed, while Amtrak still runs over tracks the freight railroads own.
Who's who
- Joseph B. EastmanCommissioner who brought trucking under ICC regulation in 1935
- D. W. BrosnanSouthern Railway president in the Big John grain-rate fight
- L. Stanley CraneTook over Conrail in 1981 and returned it to profit
- Harley O. StaggersWest Virginia congressman whose name is on the 1980 rail act
- Jimmy Carter+12 more episodesPresident who signed the Staggers Rail Act
- Alfred KahnEconomist and godfather of deregulation
- Malcom McLean+1 more episodeTrucker who invented modern containerization in 1956
- E. Hunter HarrisonDeveloper of precision scheduled railroading
Where it happens
- East Palestine, OhioSite of the February 2023 Norfolk Southern derailment
- Northeastern United StatesRegion where Conrail consolidated bankrupt railroads
Timeline
- 1935Motor Carrier Act brings interstate trucking under ICC regulation
- June 1970Penn Central bankruptcy
- April 1976Conrail begins operation
- October 1980Staggers Rail Act signed, loosening rate regulation
- March 1987Conrail IPO raises about $1.9 billion
- February 2023East Palestine derailment and vent-and-burn
Still debated
Economists dispute how much credit Staggers deserves for falling rates, since traffic mix and technology also mattered. Captive shippers say they lost out, and the size of the truck subsidy is contested. Whether precision scheduled railroading caused East Palestine is not established.
← PreviousThe Last Train Out: Death of the Passenger TrainNext →The Ledger: Winners and Losers, 1920–2026
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