Senator Smathers’ vision created vibrant freight rail system;
Advocated de-regulation of railroad industry
Statement by Edward R. Hamberger, President and CEO
Association of American Railroads
George Smathers was a transportation visionary, and many of the public policies he advocated are responsible for the dramatic increases in safety, efficiency and productivity of our nation’s freight railroads. Smathers was a strong supporter of a de-regulated railroad industry and his views hold as true today as they did nearly 50 years ago.
While in his first term as a United States Senator, he recognized that the railroad industry was harmed by a number of laws that favored other modes of transportation. To redress some of those problems, he was the chief sponsor for the Surface Transportation Act of 1958. That law rolled back some of the heavy handed federal regulations governing the freight railroad industry and allowed railroad companies - like other privately-owned American businesses - to compete in the open market. Although that law helped, railroads remained under intense competitive pressure from trucks, water carriers and airlines that were heavily subsidized by taxpayers and subject to far less regulation. Ultimately, that pressure led to the bankruptcy of more than 20 percent of the railroad industry.
By then, Senator Smathers had retired from the U.S. Senate, and took the helm of a new organization, America’s Sound Transportation Review Organization (ASTRO).
Under his direction, ASTRO conducted a comprehensive analysis of the regulatory laws surrounding railroads and impact of taxpayer subsidized competition on the industry. The resulting report laid out a program for restoring the health of the railroad industry, including a substantial amount of deregulation. Many of those recommendations were finally enacted 10 years later when the Staggers Rail Act of 1980 bec