California’s high-speed rail experiment is dead and few are mourning its loss. Donald Trump himself called Gavin Newsom’s terminally delayed pet project a “scam” and a “total waste of taxpayer money.”
Such criticism has earned President Trump a reputation among Democrats as a hater of all things rail, but this isn’t true. The president supports more transportation options for Americans, including passenger and freight rail—he just doesn’t want any more trains to nowhere. And on freight, where America already leads the world, his job is to protect what works.
The president thinks such incompetence isn’t worth chasing with another dime of taxpayer money. But he also understands that just because California can’t build trains doesn’t mean America can’t.
For example, in just one year during his first term, President Trump funded new rail projects in Arizona, Indiana, and Oregon. Why? He understood those rail lines were more worthwhile investments and wouldn’t fall victim to the same bureaucracy you’d find in California.
This has been the Trump approach: carefully allot taxpayer money to worthy rail proposals while cutting red tape to make sure they actually get built. It’s all part of what his administration calls the “golden age of American rail.” Just as importantly, it means preserving the competition that allows those investments to actually deliver for consumers.
The Trump administration later invested an additional $4.7 billion in Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor. The Department of Transportation also took control of a badly needed renovation of New York City’s Penn Station that had threatened to become a boondoggle, saving taxpayers $120 million. Duffy promised, “a Penn Station that reflects America’s greatness and is safe and clean.”
It’s well known that the United States lags behind many European and East Asian countries when it comes to passenger rail. Yet too often the Republican response has been to give up on rail projects altogether, dismissing them as too expensive.
If America is playing catch-up when it comes to passenger trains, our freight rail is the envy of the world. Powered by the private sector, every day it moves untold tons of consumer goods, building materials, and other cargo across the country. U.S. freight rail is a viable shipping alternative to trucking, which can’t be said in every country.
Here, too, President Trump has invested more money in infrastructure construction while trimming regulations. Yet the president has still another opportunity to strengthen freight rail, making sure it remains robust and competitive.
Last summer, two rail companies, Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific, announced their intention to merge into the largest freight rail conglomerate in America. The Surface Transportation Board rejected their initial application in January, and last Thursday, the companies refiled. The resulting company’s sheer size would endanger competition, which is the main reason the freight rail industry has stayed successful. Fewer major carriers mean fewer routing options for manufacturers, energy producers, and retailers, giving a combined firm leverage to raise rates or reduce service quality without fear of losing business.
Freight rail moves roughly 40 percent of long-distance freight in this country. That’s lumber of homebuilders, steel and chemicals for manufacturers, and grain for food processors. By the companies’ own projection, a combined UP-NS company would control nearly 40 percent of U.S. rail revenue and would be the only transcontinental carrier in the country.
Dr. Michael Busler, an economist at Stockton University, recently told Newsmax that this merger would increase the cost of everything from gasoline to home prices to grocery bills.
"Currently, one-third of all U.S. exports move by rail at some point in their journey," he wrote. "If we hand the 'keys to the kingdom' to a single dominant rail carrier, we are effectively giving that carrier a veto over American industrial competitiveness."
Right now, the refiled application is before the Surface Transportation Board, with public comment running through May 8. Trump should put a stop to it and allow American freight rail to continue to flourish.
The last thing freight rail needs is a monopoly. That’s what Amtrak has over passenger rail and it’s a major reason American passenger rail has struggled. That’s what happens when competition disappears, which is exactly the risk posed by the Norfolk Southern–Union Pacific merger.
The United States can have the best trains in the world, but to get there, we need to do what we do best—unleash American dynamism, innovation, and competition. Our thriving freight rail system can show us how it’s done.
The President is ponying up the funding and holding the bureaucracy accountable. Let’s keep our freight rail great while making sure America one day has the best passenger trains, too.
Ken Blackwell is a chair at the American First Policy Institute, a Board of Directors member for the Public Interest Legal Foundation, and a Senior Fellow for Human Rights and Constitutional Governance at the Family Research Council. He is a former member of the Trump transition team, Cincinnati mayor, and Ohio Treasurer and Secretary of State.