A number of recent threads have dealt with the idea of future improvements to the railroads in North America.
Here are a few ideas that if implemented will bring structural change and some benefit to todays railroads.
Legal
Repeal FELA and substitute a workers compensation type system under a new Federal Law. An adjudicatory board would be established under the auspices of the Railroad Retirement Board to handle this role and minimize the need for any additional expensive bureacracy. This would result in vastly reduced costs for railroads and better more predictable medical care and compensation for employees.
Amend the Railroad Retirement Act to account for the changes to FELA. This could include railroads providing long term disability insurance for employees in exchange for reduced payroll taxes once the RRB Sickness benefits are terminated. This would result in better, more available benefits for employees with minimal cost impacts on the railroads.
Enact amendments to the provisions of the ICC Sunset Act to permit the STB to better handle bottleneck rate cases and trackage rights/interchange disputes to smooth the flow of commerce in the most efficient lanes. This could be handled by the appointment of special masters or arbitrators to fashion workable solutions to these disputes under the auspices of the STB. Again, additional bureacracy would be minimized to keep costs down.
Enact uniform Federal real property law concerning the status of railroad rights of way as fee simple owned properties not subject to State Law.
Amtrak
Enact amendments to Amtrak legislation. Review of issues including reduction of past costs to determine if an appropriation could cut old costs including pension costs for past employees of predecessor railroads.
Legislation to provide adequate funding for Amtrak. Includes capital funding and an operational component. As part of legislation require chan
Enact regulations necessary for safe operations of remote control trains and locomotives with dues regard to the positions of both labor and management on the subject.
Sounds good LC progressive, thoughtful, and financially beneficial to most parties. The problem I see first off is the individual states and their individual and local ISSUES. Then there are the parties that you mention last. Take it from a former State employee. Those folks in you last paragraph are *** cats when compared to those states that take their States Rights seriously. Having said that though, I would support you. Such a vision is long over due
You should run for public office. That is a very excellent platform and should be implimented. I don’t know why more people with the actual knowledge from first hand experience can’t run for high office. I wish in the United States that you didn’t have to be well off to run for government because sometimes the most qualified person for the job is the poorist who just so happens to have the experience, compassion and the I.Q to do it. In Canada it isn’t so bad but I wouldn’t say it was completely different than in the U.S. Look at Paul Martin, Prime Minister of Canada and owner of Canada Steamships.
I wonder if the railroads and states should join forces to put photo radar at crossings that way if someone goes through them than the picture of the licence plate is taken and the fine is in the mail.
I have to say thet ideas 1 and 2 are not so great. Number 7 bothers me even more. Railroads are already spying on their employees at home, especially if the employee has been injured at work.
Neither #1 or 2 has anything to do with spying. Besides the railroad employs claim agents to do the spying now. In any event, #7 is probably the most likely thing on the list to become law. Check the contents of the recently announced Rail Security legislation being discussed in Congress now. Most of #7 is already there.
As to #1 and #2 I have been an injured employee on the RR and know exactly what happens to an employee who is seriously injured and sues the company. Based upon my own experience I find that both the companies and the employees seriously abuse the FELA system to the point that it is no longer salvagable. The companies abuse the employees with “starve them out” tactics and video taping by PIs. Some employees lie about their injuries or at least how they got them. So long as there is a system of litigation that rewards such tactics (including the easiest “negligence” standard around) and attorneys willing to take these cases the abuses will continue and worsen. I think the solution is to change the system. If you have any doubt, look at the recent conviction of 2 former UTU presidents and others for soliciting and taking bribes from FELA lawyers as one example of the depth of this corruption.
I like a lot of your ideas. Anything that puts RRs on the same footing as other industry is a good thing. FELA is completely ridiculous in it’s current form.
I’d like to see the RRs eventually on “normal” Social Security, too. But you’d have to grandfather current employees in some fashion in order to be fair.
I’d also like to see the 4.3 cent per gallon “deficit reduction” tax go away.
I really like your idea to get some Fed $$ for R&D. I think funding basic research is one of the long term underpinning of our economy, in general.
I think the STB should have the right to demand that railroads increase their capacity and should have the power to prevent railroads from track elimination on key corridors. However such corridors should get tax reductions on the railroad as well as some funding on security and maintainace particularly in areas prone to natural disasters.
I agree with Randy on this 100%, the RRB is better managed and does much better with the money it has than does Social Security and provides better benefits. Truth be told it would be completely impossible to retain good employees without Railroad Retirement as it now stands given the other hardships of RR work.
Some of you may not know that some classes of people can opt-out of Social Security. Not individually, but as a group. Fire fighters and police are some of them. The last I heard there were no groups that hadn’t opted-out of SS if they could!
State of North Carolina, City of Charlotte, Sugar Creek Crossing. I saw it first used in 1997 and reported and shown at the Railway Age’s Passenger Trains on Freight Railroads Conference that October. A Great Performance by a truck or two breaking down the gates and being seen in living color Tags and All. A picture of a coulpe of near misses with a couple of NS freights as well. It was also a bit more involved than a fine to pay in the mail. Something like damages, fines, license suspensions, trespassing charges, etc. You get the picture[:D][:D][:D][;)][;)][swg]
Good. I would like to see more of this at crossings. Excellent way for the governement to gain money. Because there are no shortage of idiots, the intial camera system investment should be paided off so the tax dollars are put back into the public.