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Opinion: Don’t be quick to bash rail — an engine of the economy


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#1 CNJRoss

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Posted 26 November 2014 - 12:25 AM

Seattle (WA) Times, 11/21:

 

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Guest: Don’t be quick to bash rail — an engine of the economy

A 19th century industry remains critical to the success of the 21st century economy, writes guest columnist Philip J. Romero.

By Philip J. Romero

Special to The Times

 

IT’S ironic that our 21st century economy could not exist without an often maligned or ignored 19th century industry. But this industry, freight rail, is in the cross hairs of some detractors who ignore its supreme economic significance.

 

Quiz Washington residents about which industries drive the state’s economy and you will hear about the usual suspects: commercial aircraft (Boeing), software (Microsoft), the Internet (Amazon.com) and agriculture (apples and many others). Younger respondents may name startups you’ve never heard of — but today’s giants were once startups, too.

 

The common denominator in these success stories is trade: None would be world-class producers without shipping their products to customers around the globe. Trade has driven Washington’s economy since before statehood. And trade isn’t possible without an efficient way to transport exports.

 

Washington and British Columbia have a great geographic advantage. They include the North American seaports closest to rising economies in Northeast Asia. Three billion new capitalists are successfully striving to join the global middle class by trading what they have in abundance (labor) for what they lack (technology).

 

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It is no exaggeration that without freight rail, the Pacific Northwest would be a sparsely populated backwater with only a subsistence economy. Operators of inland farms, forests, mines and manufacturing plants simply could not get products to customers. Anyone living farther than a truck trip from a seaport would be cut off from the global economy.

 

Economic history confirms this. Before steam-powered trains and ships, North America beyond the Mississippi River was wilderness. Annual per capita incomes were about $1,000 in current dollars — 2 percent of today’s. Markets for products of inland farms, orchards and mines were limited to nearby customers. There was no pressure to improve because of world-class overseas competitors, so there was no impetus for incomes to increase. World incomes had basically remained flat until steam-powered rail changed all that.

 

Today, rail is the superior land-based method to transport bulk cargoes long distances. Trains are four times as fuel efficient and more than 100 times as labor efficient as trucks, offering American shippers the lowest rates in the developed world. Locomotives emit one-fourth the pollutants of trucks, and produce one-ninth the overall social costs. Railroad accident rates are half that of a generation ago, and less than two-thirds the rate for all industries.

 

Read more here.

 

 






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