Business View Magazine - September 2015

44 Business View - September 2015 Business View - September 2015 45 newly formed American Short Line Railroad Associa- tion (ASLRA). In 1997, the ASLRA merged with the Re- gional Railroads of America to form the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association (ASLRRA). To- day, the ASLRRA continues its mandate of represent- ing the interests of the American short line industry, and railroads, in general. Its current membership is 550 rail lines and 500 suppliers and contractors. Short line railroads are thriving today and are an im- portant part, both of the railroad industry and the national economy. Short lines connect the rural com- munities of America and provide a viable and afford- able means of transportation for goods and people, not served by the larger railroads. They operate and maintain 30 percent of the country’s railroad mileage – approximately 50,000 miles - and account for nine percent of its freight revenue and 12 percent of all rail- road employment. But for decades throughout the 20th century, the sur- vival of short line railroads was far from assured. Hard times began in the 1920s. Trucking competition was increasing, and the legislative agenda in Washington was tilting toward the newer way of delivering goods and services, imposing burdensome regulations on railroads, while subsidizing the trucking industry with government-built highways. At the beginning of the Great Depression, 50 percent of all short lines report- ed net losses. By its end, that number had increased to 65 percent. The downward trend continued into the 1970s, largely because of the country’s new Interstate Highway Sys- tem, which further eroded rail traffic in favor of trucks and automobiles. In addition, punitive taxation poli- cies and burdensome federal regulations helped drive many independent lines into bankruptcy. As the situ- ation worsened, ASLRRA membership continued to decline, even as the organization persevered in its ad- vocacy role, trying to get Congress to ameliorate what was clearly seen by many as the last dying throes of a once profitable and vibrant American industry. Finally, in 1976 Congress passed the Railroad Revital- ization and Regulatory Reform (4R) Act and, in 1980, the Staggers Act, two pieces of legislation that ended most of the economic regulation on the rail industry and gave the larger railroads a viable exit strategy for divesting themselves of their unprofitable lines. All at once, the major railroads began to market these lines to short line operators and independent entre- preneurs, and America’s small railroad industry was, in essence, reborn, returning to its early 19th cen- tury roots of serving local customers with efficient logistics logistics