>Fact was (in hindsight of course), the SP was living off the fat of the land (land grants) for most of the last century - it never was a viable company once they lost their monopoly; having never learned to adapt in a competitive marketplace. So, when the fallout from the SPSF ("Shouldn't Paint So Fast") merger attempt, stripped the SP of its money making land grant holdings - down it went!

I don't quite agree. None of the land grant rrs really made a lot of money from the grants. All military shipments (like WWII) were made at half-price. Beginning around 1960 upper management stripped away the non-railroad assets from the railroads with corporate shuffles (there was an article in Railway Age at the time). Thus the Southern Pacific Lines became SP Transportation Co, a subsidiary of SP Co., which also owned SP Pipelines, SP Land Co, Pacific Motor Trucking, and so on, all separate companies yet all wholly owned subsidiaries of Southern Pacific Co. It was the same with all the other railroads. This left the former railroad companies hollow shells, no longer able to use heir non-railroad assets to help keep the trains running. Catellus Development (now ProLogis) is now what the Santa Fe Land and SP Land used to be.

The things which killed the SP Transpo Co was the loss of GM's assembly plants at Gemco and Warm Springs in the early 1980s. These were the first and second largest accounts. It was a case of relying too much on a single commodity. Similarly, the NWP went down when the timber industry collapsed -- and a lot of logging lines went away for the same reason. Besides, after WWII, all the railroads' economic fortunes became shaky, not just those land grant ones. Them there nefarious truckers are the cause of it all, not to mention Ike and the Interstate Highways Act.

>Speaking as a former union member (no longer employed there), any union that permits its members to be so overworked, underpaid, and ABUSED, and just pussyfoots around, accomplishing a whole lot of nothing, as has been the case; AIN'T WORTH the paper their charters are printed on!

>And don't give me this bullbleep that permitting upwards of 14 straight days of 12 hours on duty each (or 16 if a 4 hour rest in the middle is included); is anything other plain out an out BRUTALITY and ABUSE. Not even machinery can be abused in that manner, and still keep running!

It sounds like you aren't very familiar with what it takes to change the system. How long has it been since any union or groupings thereof (AFL, CIO, etc) has had the political clout neceeary to unilaterally and/or quickly change what Congress does when writing laws?? The Amtrak engineers and trainmen went 10 years without a contract because Amtrak Labor Relations was stonewalling the process. Would you have forced arbitration? If so you had better do a LOT of homework and think more carefully than you ever have or you'll wind up screwing so many people you'll have to have a zerk fitting installed in you neck to ease the pain of constantly looking over your shoulder. Why do you think there is so much animosity towards the current Amtrak BLE General Chairman? His tentative agreement of 2008 was voted down by a 2:1 margin. The current one was also just voted down. It's one thing to be on the outside looking in; it's quite another to be on the inside with all the responsibilities. It's a whole different ball of wax.