Atlas Shrugging Watch

Brian Doherty | January 13, 2005

Is it because of whim-worshipping, muscle-mysticism, or just heavy rains and mudslides? At any rate, Union Pacific, the nation's largest railroad, is paralyzed in Southern California, with four of its five main lines out of the L.A. basin closed up, says this Los Angeles Times (reg. req.) report. But they can't blame it all on 23 recent mudslides endangering tracks--Union Pacific was already struggling with major track congestion problems that were slowing up freight before the rains began. Lots of transpacific ocean shipping is being rerouted to Seattle from the L.A. area.

Comments

|1.13.05 @ 5:49PM|#

I can hear the regulators licking their chops now....

|1.13.05 @ 6:14PM|#

Is it a market failure if the industry is heavily regulated, heavily unionized and it would take an Act of Congress and eleventy billion lawyer hours in thousands of courts to get to build/modify/abandon railroads?

Or is there a new paradigm in heavy (not light rail, Josephus) rail transport?

QFMC cos. V

|1.14.05 @ 3:14AM|#

Isn't this railroad technology kind of old & outdated by now?

|1.14.05 @ 4:01AM|#

More than 2/3 of shipping in this country is done by rail. Out of date indeed.

|1.14.05 @ 8:23AM|#

That's weird. I was just recalling Atlas Shrugged regarding the power companies' complete inability to restore power here in Ohio after every winter storm - especially after that blackout. It's happening! :)

|1.14.05 @ 9:27AM|#

You're being old-fashioned!

|1.14.05 @ 9:47AM|#

Doug, there are certainly more technologically advanced modes of shipping bulk goods, but nothing that even approaches rail for cost effectiveness and safety.

Think about it - what would propose replacing it with? 10-20X the number of trucks on highways? Air freight? The Panama Canal?

|1.14.05 @ 10:25AM|#

Blimps!

|1.14.05 @ 10:30AM|#

OK, maybe blimps...

|1.14.05 @ 10:41AM|#

We need Doc Brown to build some of those time traveling hover trains. You could have next second delivery.

Arnold|1.14.05 @ 12:01PM|#

Rising (doubling in 4 years): Imports from Asia (China)

How do they get to the rest of the US? West coast ports, then rail, final legs by truck of course.

Falling (-30% until recent near-stop): activity at major Cali ports (Long Beach, Oakland, etc.)

Rising: Oregon, Washington port and transport activity.

With the perpetual Cali budget problems and the horrendous state of its roads and road-building prospects, the redistribution of shipping to OR and WA is going to accelerate mightily.

You heard it here first. Invest accordingly.

|1.14.05 @ 12:04PM|#

I have a friend who works for the Union Pacific, and he tells me that regulation is not really the problem. There are literally hundreds of miles of track that are long overdue for inspection and maintainance, and by the regulations would cost the UP quite a bit in fines. However, it's cheaper to throw money at the FRA to "miss" inspections and do a shoddy job on the ones they do than to pay for the materials and crews and fines that actual inspections and repairs would cost. They're also doing this with car maintainance and inspection. There are two lines going north out of Denver - the UP only keeps one open and maintained because it's cheaper; but they regularly get backed up at the yards because of this. I suspect LA is a similar situation.

|1.14.05 @ 12:26PM|#

We need Doc Brown to build some of those time traveling hover trains. You could have next second delivery.

Actually you could get it before you ordered it, or even knew that you needed more of it.

|1.14.05 @ 2:12PM|#

Nothing can be done as long as those looters keep hindering the production of Rearden Metal!

(Actually, I really like the blimps idea.)

|1.14.05 @ 2:19PM|#

It would need to be made out of Thiotimoline, rather than Reardon metal then.

|1.14.05 @ 5:46PM|#

Ah, angela, I see that you are familiar with that seminal article, The Endochronic Properties of Resublimated Thiotimoline. Considering that the article was published over sixty years ago, you'd think there'd be more applications for thiotimoline.

Blimps rule, as do all airships. The Japanese launched the largest ever today.