Eugene weekly., March 17, 2005, Page 13, Image 13

overnight, that was not accidental.”
“Whoa! Are we talking conspiracy theo-
ry?” I asked, warming to the subject.
“Some people called it that. Up until
World War II, our railways were the best in
the world, incredibly efficient. They benefit-
ed the public, but not everyone was happy
about that. Car makers, for example. In the
late 1930s, a former executive of General
Motors was appointed to the board of the
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Before long he had pushed through a rule
that said any company selling electric power
cannot also operate public transport.”
“Conflict of interest?” I suggested.
structure when the economy took a tempo-
rary downturn.
“Unlike railways, no taxes on right-of-
ways are paid by highways, airports, water-
ways and seaports because they are publicly
owned. Their fuel taxes are churned back
into air, waterway and highway expansion
via dedicated government trust funds specif-
ically set up for those modes. Railroad taxes
for rights-of-way, on the other hand, are used
to help fund local governments in the areas
they pass through, and our fuel taxes, until
very recently, went into a general fund that,
ironically, helps build more airports and
highways.”
‘I t’ s j u st as i m p or ta n t fo r f r e i gh t as i t i s f o r
p as se n g er s t o n ot b e d el ay ed i n b ot t le n ec k s .
I n f a ct , U P w as p l an n in g t o d ou b le -t r ac k sp e c if ic
b o tt l en e ck s on t h e r ou te fr o m P o r tl an d t o E ug e ne
th is y e ar , b ut t hi s h ad t o b e pu t o ff u n ti l n e xt y e ar
b e c au s e o f $2 00 m il li on i n C al if or n ia f l oo d
d am a g e ex pe n se s .’ — Ruth Bascom, Chair (OPRAC)
“No, you don’t get it,” McFarling said
patiently. “GM knew that all over the U.S.,
including Portland and Eugene, streetcars
were owned and operated by electric utilities
as a matter of efficiency. They had laid out
the tracks, the infrastructure, along with the
power grids.
“Under this new regulation, power com-
panies were forced to divest themselves of
their trolley lines, which were snapped up by
companies funded by a consortium made up
of GM, Standard Oil, Firestone Rubber,
Mack Truck and Greyhound Bus Lines. The
public howled and eventually the regulation
was overturned as being unconstitutional —
but too late! The consortium had already torn
up the tracks and pulled down the wires. The
public was forced onto GM buses fueled by
Standard Oil and rolling on Firestone tires.”
“And they got away with that?” I asked.
“Not exactly. The five corporations were
tried in Federal District Court in 1949 and
found guilty under antitrust laws. Each com-
pany was fined less than $1,000, and the
individuals involved had to pay one dollar
each. The judge explained this by saying he
could not evaluate the damage, so he chose
arbitrary numbers.”
“That explains about the trolleys,” I said.
“What about the trains?”
“Eisenhower,” McFarling replied, “saw
the autobahns when he helped take Germany
in WWII; came back, got elected president,
spent billions in creating the federal interstate
highways. At the same time, GM played a sig-
nificant role in weakening the power of
American railroads by coercing them to use
GM-built diesel locomotives and discontinue
use of far more efficient electric locomotives.
And of course air travel kept improving.
“But here’s the thing. Congress gives bil-
lions more in aid to airlines, airports and
highways than it does to railways — and the
word ‘subsidy’ is almost never heard for
them. They’re funded as public works and
not burdened with the cost of building or
maintaining their infrastructure. And
Washington does not downsize freeways
when tax revenues decline. Railroad compa-
nies, however, often had to downsize infra-
McFarling looked thoughtful, then added,
“Y’know, there’s a social issue as well.
Public transport brings people from all class-
es together, as opposed to each in their own
‘steel coffin’ competing for space on the
roads. This affects business, government, the
environment. Surely, we wouldn’t be in Iraq
today if our foreign policy was not so
obsessed with foreign oil. It’s all inter-
twined.”
But McFarling also sees improvements.
“The Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad
has been providing much better on-time per-
formance for Amtrak, and Union Pacific now
recognizes the need to work together cooper-
atively.”
Former Eugene Mayor Ruth Bascom
agrees. As chair of the Oregon Passenger
Rail Advisory Council (OPRAC) since its
inception in 1996 (and presently co-chair
with Albany Mayor Chuck McClaren), she
works closely with UP passenger representa-
tive Tom Mulligan, who often travels here
from UP headquarters in Omaha to attend
OPRAC meetings.
“It’s just as important for freight as it is
for passengers to not be delayed in bottle-
necks,” Bascom told EW last week. “In fact,
UP was planning to double-track specific
bottlenecks on the route from Portland to
Eugene this year, but this had to be put off
until next year because of $200 million in
California flood damage expenses.
“The single worst bottleneck in Oregon,”
Bascom reported, “is the section of track in
Eugene between Pearl Street and Prairie
Road. Tom Mulligan says this is still UP’s
priority after the California emergency is
cleaned up. We expect work to begin on this
by next winter.”
Trains serving the entire Pacific
Northwest Corridor carry about a million
passengers each year. As Claudia Howells,
former administrator of the Oregon
Department of Transportation’s Rail
Division, stated to a Senate committee in
Washington not long ago, “In a part of the
country that is generally viewed as being in
love with automobiles, we believe this (rid-
ership) is extraordinary.”
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