The Sustainable Earth Council wholeheartedly endorses the Public Rail Now campaign to nationalize America’s railroads.
Historically, the Plumb Plan was a plan to allow the return of private ownership of the railroads after World War One. Due to the negligence of tracks and lack of scheduling among the private owners, Congress took into receivership all railroads for the duration of the war. During the war, Congress allocated millions of dollars to renovate the railways, locomotives and other rail yards and conducted all scheduling for both freight and passenger rail. The problem was that Congress promised the private owners that they would get back ownership when the war ended. The Plumb Plan, although promising to return ownership to the private sector, retained the right to requisition all right of ways and all tracks, if necessary, in the future.
Congress allowed private monopolies to restore their ownership of our railways after WW1, and the environmental consequences have been negative across the board. Returning ownership back to the public, would have tremendous environmental benefits.
The railroad monopolies in their relentless pursuit of profits have caused endless environmental damage, and now through their use of Precision Scheduled Railroading (PSR) the private owners have increased substantially the amount of crashes and destruction. PSR requires one person only to manage 2-3 mile long trains. During the Obama administration, the crew for any train was minimally 4 rail workers. Any crew must constantly monitor the board for any safety concerns. Such as in the East Palestine, OH disaster, where one person was unable to adequately monitor before a derailment became inevitable. Train derailments, such as the East Palestine disaster, have led to massive environmental damages.
Nationalizing our railroads could also facilitate the construction and improvement of public transportation railroads around the country. On a local level, public railways could help facilitate more compact city plans, reducing urban sprawl and its numerous ecological and social issues.
Increasing cities’ public transportation options would also pave the way for a more robust national public railway system, finally connecting our cities. The US’s only major intercity passenger train network, Amtrak, has no dedicated track for passenger service. Amtrak relies on permission from rail freight owners to use their tracks, thus disincentivizing this more eco-friendly form of transportation.
Nationalizing all railways, from local to national, would allow our country to finally catch up to the level of efficiency already present everywhere from Berlin to Beijing.
The current archaic system of railroad ownership means that in many areas there are redundant rail lines where competing railroad companies each have their own rail line.
The need for nationalized control of the railroad system would reduce redundancy. It would create schedules both for freight and for passengers. It would also reduce harm to the environment in the forms of air, water, and soil pollution.
It is time for the United States to meet the standards of every other industrialized country. Europe, China, and India have all understood the necessity of nationalizing their railroad systems. Private ownership cannot guarantee public safety.
Public Rail Now is a united front for us all to create a national campaign to take back the railway systems.
Therefore, be it resolved that the Sustainable Earth Council hereby expresses its support for the transition of Class One railroads in the United States from private ownership to public ownership; and
Be it further resolved that the Sustainable Earth Council urges all relevant stakeholders, including labor unions, environmental organizations, community groups, and the general public, to join efforts in advocating for the public ownership of US railroads as a means to promote safety, sustainability, and equitable access to transportation; and
Be it finally resolved that the Sustainable Earth Council urges other environmental organizations to likewise support and promote the transition to public ownership of US railroads.
