The Best Transportation System in the World

Book excerpt: "From 1920 to the mid-1990s, American transportation in the form of railroads, trucks, and airlines was simply a creature of politics and public policy. In brief, the markets for rail, truck, and airlines were not natural entities, but had been created through hard-fought political contests, full-time lobbying, and unceasing litigation. Between 1940 and the late 1970s, moreover, leaders of rail, truck, and airline firms lobbied and litigated to protect the workings of this regulatory regime." "In the mid-1950s, President Eisenhower asked Congress to award railroad executives authority to modify prices and service. Eisenhower was concerned about a railroad industry in decline. During the 1960s, President Johnson sought broad deregulation of rail, trucks, and airline firms. Johnson wanted another device to "fine tune" the economy. In the 1970s, Presidents Nixon, Ford, and Carter sought to deregulate transportation with a view toward reversing "stagflation." Between 1978 and 1980, Congress and President Carter approved deregulation of airlines, trucking, and railroads. Carter aide Mary Schuman played a crucial role in bringing about airline deregulation. For all the market talk that surrounded transportation politics before and after 1980, however, officials of the American state had been and remained the principal agents creating those markets."--BOOK JACKET.