A Report on the Conference on Mass Transportation/The Handbook of Transportation in America [antikvár]

by Charles LunaPresidentUnited Transportation UnionWhether he wants to be or not, the man who works on the rail-road today, whatever his job, is viewed by the public as an au-thority for his industry's attitude toward passenger travel.The off-duty brakeman at a neighborhood party can usuallycount on at least one discussion launched by someone whoseuncle had trouble making train connections from Chicago toMemphis, or a lady who demands to know, "What do you do ifflying makes you sick and long bus rides are bad for the kid-neys?"The trainman's posture is generally modest. As a rule he, too,is unhappy about the curtailment of passenger runs, but his au-thority falls far short of the political and economic forces in-volved, and he probably has little more than a user's knowledgeof kidneys.For us, therefore, the massive central and radial problems ofmass transportation have long held a kind of disgusting fascina-tion. We have a point of view, but it's not firmed in depth. We'rebusy now in research, out of which we hope to offer a policystatement on mass transportationbut that may take a littletime.Meanwhile, we have grown to realize that the subject suffers inlarge measure from limited exposure. Please don't take that tomean that too little is said or written about it; on the contrary, itgets more media and conversational verbiage than anything ex-cept sex and the war in Viet Nam. But rarely do you find anytreatment of the mass transportation topic as an integrated di-lemma.It involves trains, of course, but you can't talk trains withouttalking about buses and airplanes that compete with trainsandyou can't get into their business without touching on water traveland on the local, state, national and international regulationsgoverning all of them. So you reach the level of politics, and inthe councils of government, when you talk transportation, youfind yourself in the crowded company of planners, social work-ers, manufacturers, labor unions of all kinds, and a variety ofcitizens' organizations.by Charles LunaPresidentUnited Transportation UnionDuring a recent trip to Washington, one of our public relationspeople had a chance to talk with some of the men who took partin the 1967 Conference on Public Transportation. They said a lotof kind things about our conference, and naturally we werepleased to hear them, but one comment puzzled mea referenceto the seminars as "an institution."As of this date we've done it only twice. The 1966 Conferenceon Public Transportation was our first. The '67 was our "secondannual/' As I write this, we're in the middle of planning for a"third annual." That's hardly enough background for an "in-stitution."The debut in 1966 was planned as a one-shot event. That yearwe decided to confer on public transportation, and the followingyear, if we had a conference at all, it would be on something else.The success of '66 led to '67and 1967 told us we were estab-lished on an annual course of conferences on Public Trans-portation.We've talked so much about 1968 that we are thinking in termsof "three" instead of "two." Suggestions already have been re-ceived for 1969. One of .our '66 and '67 participants has proposeda series of topics that would take us to 1976.When you talk about "institutions," of course, you have toreach back in time, so we gratefully acknowledge the Washingtoncourtesy without commenting on its accuracy. But when you startreaching ahead, when you find yourself surveying a little historyfrom a brief rush across 1976, you see things in a new context.I wonder what the material in this report will mean to studentsof transportation in the middle of the next decade. We're still get-INTRODUCTIONTransportation has always been the lifeline of our nation.Fixed-line transportation, such as rail and water, spurred the de-velopment of great urban centers. Later, automobiles added theflexibility that helped transform the old city into today's sprawl-ing metropolis.Ironically, the progress and growth engendered by improvedtransportation have created vast problems for current and futuretransportation. Employment opportunities are now scattered overthe entire metropolitan area so that work-oriented travel nolonger fits a neat pattern to and from the central business district.The automobile has permitted a diffusion of metropolitanpopulations which defies the capabilities of traditional mass-transit facilities. Suburban trips unrelated to work are even morediverse in origin and destination. Mass transit, in its present state,cannot feasibly move the tremendous and ever-increasingmetropolitan population.Thus, the urban/suburban traveler has become a slave to theonly available mode suitable to his demandsthe automobile.The burgeoning congestion of highway traffic compounds safetymenaces beyond imagination. Providing adequate highways nowwould not only involve staggering outlays of funds, but wouldactually jeopardize urban land they are meant to serve.We must, therefore, seek new solutions and implement avail-Introductionby Charles LunaPresidentUnited Transportation UnionThe first of our Conferences took place in 1966, and theFourth Annual, if we can believe simple arithmetic, should havehappened in 1969. It didn't. In 1969, the Brotherhood of Rail-road Trainmen which began the successful Conference series wasbusy becoming part of the United Transportation Union, theproduct of a merger of four operating railroad organiza-tionsBRT, the Firemen, the Switchmen and the Conductors.The 1970 seminar, now sponsored by the UTU, is, therefore,Conference Number 4; a worthy successor, we think you'll agree,to the first three, and a tough act for Number 5 to follow in 1971.The new United Transportation Union in 1970 made an impres-sive contribution to the study of transportation.The 1970 Conference was somewhat different, and the differ-ence was exciting. We knew that the subject, "What Should aNational Transportation Policy Contain?" was almost as broadas the whole field of transportation with its political, social andeconomic surroundings. But far from useless wandering, our par-ticipants managed to nail down many points which should bevaluable to anyone who draws the assignment of constructing anAmerican transportation policy.This report will be mailed about the time our entire trans-portation community is rocked by waves flowing from theby Charles LunaPresidentUnited Transportation UnionI've spent much of the past year fielding criticism from tradeeditorialists and a great variety of carrier management who be-lieve the railroad unions should say nothing but good about therailroads. This, as I read it, is like saying that we must expressnothing but favorable opinions of what railroad managementdoes, especially in the matter of passenger operation.In some ways the argument makes sense. If you have some-thing derogatory to offer, make sure its kept within the family.Tell it to railroad managementbehind closed doors. Just makesure the public at large doesn't hear it because so much dependson public attitude, including the welfare of the industry and,directly connected to industry welfare, the jobs of our unionmembers.|H lili BU I ||In part, we've tried to overcome that problem through theseConferences. In our small way, we provided the room with thetable and the chairs for transportation people to sit down and,within their family, compare ideas and air their criticisms with-out the fear that anyone is looking over anyone's shoulder. Eventhe press has respected our restrictions against reporting "off thetop of the head" panel conversation.We have had good results. Passenger service management haswelcomed the chance to meet in this way with others in their ownfield, from campus to capitol, and test their own views in a toughlaboratory.Nevertheless, it's impossible for any railroad union officer tomake a public apparance these days without getting asked aboutpassenger service. When we ask why we should get the questions,we're told that there's no point in asking the railroads becausethey just aren't answering their phone. Strangely enough, on thistopic they are not answering their phone for anyone includingperhaps least of allthe unions.It's no secret that we have an opinion on passenger trains. Weopposed the shrinkage of this business until, despite us and others,it shrank out of all original proportion and, in too many cases, out