Dear Friends,

In this time of corporate impunity, pay to play politics, and acquiescence to demagogues and the oligarchs that pull the strings, Robert Primus has demonstrated a refreshing immunity to manipulation by either party or patron. As a member of the Surface Transportation Board (STB)—and in his stint as its Chair—his penchant for fairness, ability to ask hard questions in defense of the public interest, and his integrity were always apparent. So too was his well calibrated bullshit meter and impatience for obfuscation.

This of course made him simultaneously absolutely critical to the public good—AND —very poorly suited to service under Trump Inc. Being the sole vote against the last railroad merger (Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern into CPKC) during the Biden Administration—not to mention being a deeply experienced African American sitting on a powerful, independent regulatory board—put a target on his back.

There was, therefore, little to be surprised about—but much to be outraged over—with Trump’s brazenly illegal firing of Mr. Primus from the STB without cause last August. The move came less than a month after the mega-railroads Union Pacific (UP) and Norfolk Southern (NS) announced their intention to merge. It was little more than a week before UP CEO Jim Vena visited the White House, which was followed shortly thereafter with a UP donation toward Trump’s infamous Ballroom.

Recognizing Mr. Primus’ firing as a threat to the independence, and thus the legitimacy, of this crucial regulatory body, Solutionary Rail immediately launched a petition to halt proceedings of the Board until Mr. Primus was restored to his rightful position. We were also the first to publish a leaked email from current STB Chair Patrick Fuchs which raised yet further questions about the Board’s ability to carry out its mission—let alone evaluate a high-profile merger proposal—free of influence from the White House.

Our advocacy brought us into contact with Mr. Primus, who, after a handful of conversations, agreed to record an interview on the Reconnect America podcast. The conversation we are sharing with you today highlights the immense gap between the STB we have and the one that is needed to stand up for the public interest and see us through this endgame moment in the history of this critical national infrastructure.

Above all, this interview should serve as a wakeup call that the pending Surface Transportation Reauthorization Act—which only comes up for consideration every five years—absolutely must include language to strengthen the mandate of the STB and revamp its tools for the new era in which we find ourselves. For such language, lawmakers need look no further than the bipartisan Reliable Rail Service Act.

With Gratitude & Solidarity,

Bill Moyer

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Reconnect America is hosted by Bill Moyer, co-author of the book Solutionary Rail: A People-powered Campaign to Electrify America’s Railroads and Open Corridors to a Clean Energy Future. Check out the essays and supplemental posts that complement this podcast HERE.

Learn more, get involved and pitch in to support the work of Solutionary Rail at SolutionaryRail.org. Keep the podcast ads-free and without paywalls by making a tax-deductible donation HERE.

 “In the 10 years from 1970 to 1980, America’s relationship to its railroads underwent a profound reorientation of purpose, a paradigm shift that—if we examine it carefully—helps us understand and interpret the circumstances we find ourselves in today.”

So begins Episode 5.

As we saw in Episode 4, this paradigm shift was meant to address a profound crisis within the railroad industry: faced with competition from other modes of transport—which, unlike railroads, were heavily subsidized by the public—the nondiscriminatory service and pricing that we had required of railroad corporations for almost a century was now driving several of them into bankruptcy.

We also saw how policymakers went to extraordinary lengths in the 1960s and ‘70s to save the railroad corporations and keep the infrastructure they operated under private control. But the railroads’ financial woes persisted.

As this crisis deepened, there were some who argued for preserving rail service by finally putting railroads on even footing with trucks, airplanes and barges. They proposed doing this either by placing both railroad infrastructure and operations under public ownership, or by having the public take responsibility for just the tracks, creating an open-access steel interstate that would allow railroad corporations to compete directly for every customer.

But instead, Congress and the Jimmy Carter administration turned to deregulation. A series of reforms, culminating with the Staggers Act of 1980, attempted to rescue the profitability of railroad corporations once and for all by largely relieving them of their longstanding obligations toward serving the public.

As stated in the introduction, this fifth episode of the Reconnect America series “tells the story of how that transformation took place, who benefited, and who got left behind, and how this dovetailed with broader changes in the U.S. and global economies to shape the world that we are living in today.”

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Reconnect America is hosted by Bill Moyer, co-author of the book Solutionary Rail: A People-powered Campaign to Electrify America’s Railroads and Open Corridors to a Clean Energy Future. Check out the essays and supplemental posts that complement this podcast HERE.

Learn more, get involved and pitch in to support the work of Solutionary Rail at SolutionaryRail.org. Keep the podcast ads-free and without paywalls by making a tax-deductible donation HERE.

Co-written and produced by Bill Moyer and Sasha Elenko. Engineering by August Moore and Tom Stiles. Musical theme by Ken Jacobsen and additional music by Ota Prota.

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The audio-only player above features a version of the discussion that has been edited for clarity and brevity. Watch the full, unedited video recording of the panel here:

Dear Friends,

Last week, Solutionary Rail welcomed a panel of environmental justice and labor organizers to discuss how we can shift U.S. rail from being a source of harm to an infrastructure that benefits us all.

Our friends at Pace e Bene were calling for Solutions Circles as part of this year’s Earth Week, and we were honored to collaborate by hosting such incredible guests.

Included in the panel were Andrea Vidaurre (People’s Collective for Environmental Justice), mark! Lopez (East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice), Tabitha Tripp (Public Rail Now), Ryan Calbreath (UE Green Locomotive program), and Jess Conard (Rail Watch), and myself.

Over the last few years, EJ and labor organizers have been deepening their bonds of solidarity and finding common cause in the fight to electrify our rail system. But electrification is not the only interest or benefit that a more accountable rail system would provide. Another goal is shifting our rail system toward delivering greater community safety and broader societal benefit by getting more trucks off the road, reconnecting service to rural communities, and hosting new transmission on rail corridors.

Working at the state and federal level, these allies and organizers are shaping policies and shifting the political calculus to overcome the profound power of the biggest (“Class 1”) railroads (BNSF, UP, CSX, NS, CN, and CPKC) whose management has been captured by extractive Wall Street forces.

This discussion is both a glimpse into our organizing work, the overlapping interests/reconnect america vision/concrete instantiation, and a preview of things to come in our Reconnect America podcast series

This conversation illustrates some of the key interlocking interests that define the Reconnect America vision and serves as a preview of things to come in our Reconnect America podcast series.

With Gratitude & Solidarity,

Bill Moyer

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Reconnect America is hosted by Bill Moyer, co-author of the book Solutionary Rail: A People-powered Campaign to Electrify America’s Railroads and Open Corridors to a Clean Energy Future. Check out the essays and supplemental posts that complement this podcast HERE.

Learn more, get involved and pitch in to support the work of Solutionary Rail at SolutionaryRail.org. Keep the podcast ads-free and without paywalls by making a tax-deductible donation HERE.

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Dear Friends,

This conversation rounds out a trio of interviews that explore the 46-year aftermath of the deregulatory Staggers Act. Our guest is Arnav Rao, who serves as a transportation policy analyst at the Open Markets Institute, where he works with previous Reconnect America guest Phil Longman.

An astute student of the history of the U.S. railroad industry and a keen observer of the present moment, Arnav does an excellent job of weaving together the many threads we have been tracing in recent months.

Beginning with the Staggers Act of 1980, Arnav reveals how an ideological program pushed regulators far beyond what Congress had originally intended. Not only were critical protections for shippers, workers, and the public were cast aside, but unchecked consolidation also left the U.S. with a largely monopolized and unaccountable railroad industry.

As the conversation turns to the arrival of aggressive so-called “activist” investors from Wall Street and their imposition of the extractive business model known as precision scheduled railroading, Arnav helps tease apart the similarities and differences between this phenomenon and earlier forms of cost-cutting that followed the Staggers Act.

Finally, we discuss the current state of the industry—the proposed Union Pacific-Norfolk Southern merger, the captivity of railroad management to Wall Street demands, and the illegal firing of Surface Transportation Board member Robert Primus. We wrap up by envisioning a path toward the restoration of public purpose for this critical national infrastructure.

With Gratitude & Solidarity,

Bill Moyer

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Reconnect America is hosted by Bill Moyer, co-author of the book Solutionary Rail: A People-powered Campaign to Electrify America’s Railroads and Open Corridors to a Clean Energy Future. Check out the essays and supplemental posts that complement this podcast HERE.

Learn more, get involved and pitch in to support the work of Solutionary Rail at SolutionaryRail.org. Keep the podcast ads-free and without paywalls by making a tax-deductible donation HERE.

Dear friends,

We have been exploring the effects of the deregulatory interventions that the U.S. implemented from 1970 to 1980—extraordinary measures that aimed to rescue railroad corporations and keep the infrastructure they operate under private control.

As we continue this exploration, we wanted to share a perspective that vividly brings to life the significance of what happened at that time and in the years that followed—not just the harms that were inflicted, but also the opportunities that were missed, the potential that remains untapped, and the enduring urgency of attempting to turn things around.

Who better to do that than Ken Kirschling, who began working in the railroad industry shortly after its deregulation in the 1980s and remains deeply involved in it to this day? Ken is the owner and principal bridge engineer at Rail Star Engineering. By a stroke of good fortune, his office is also right next door to mine.

As you will hear in our conversation, Ken’s up-close experience of the transformations that U.S. railroads have undergone imbues his stories with a unique energy. Decades after the fact, you can still feel Ken’s excitement when he recounts working in an industry that was no longer resource-constrained and was, for a time, actually growing and innovating—even as it was leaving smaller communities behind in order to free up that capital. No less palpable, however, is Ken’s profound disappointment at the funneling of capital out of the system that has since taken place, and the stagnation and deterioration of service that has ensued.

Whether you are already familiar with these themes or approaching them for the first time, this conversation is sure to inspire you with both appreciation and concern for the past, present, and future of this critical national infrastructure on which we all depend.

With Gratitude & Solidarity,

Bill Moyer

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Reconnect America is hosted by Bill Moyer, co-author of the book Solutionary Rail: A People-powered Campaign to Electrify America’s Railroads and Open Corridors to a Clean Energy Future. Check out the essays and supplemental posts that complement this podcast HERE.

Learn more, get involved and pitch in to support the work of Solutionary Rail at SolutionaryRail.org. Keep the podcast ads-free and without paywalls by making a tax-deductible donation HERE.

Dear friends,

As we gear up for the release of Episodes 5 and 6 of Reconnect America, we wanted to share some of the conversations that have been guiding us toward a deeper understanding of the last 46 years of U.S. rail transport and the evolving relationship between this critical national infrastructure and the businesses and communities that depend upon it.

My guest for today’s conversation is John Strong, professor of finance at the College of William and Mary. Professor Strong is the author of a handful of articles that have proven uniquely valuable in illuminating some of the interconnected issues that we are grappling with—in particular, the development of the operating model known as Precision Scheduled Railroading (PSR) and the rise of a class of activist investors who have aggressively forced this model upon railroad managers in North America.

In addition to these themes, our conversation also explores how the ground for PSR and shareholder activism was laid by an earlier wave of adaptation to railroad and financial deregulation. Driven by the newfound ability to spin off and abandon less profitable lines, merge systems, and enter long-term contracts with discounts that privileged the largest multinational corporations, this initial pivot was aimed at moving fewer, longer, so-called “unit trains” carrying a single commodity from a single origin to a single destination. Financially, it was fueled by an emergent class of index fund managers, whose passive oversight left a power vacuum that would ultimately be filled by activist investors.

In a moment when Wall Street’s stranglehold on U.S. railroads threatens to trigger yet another wave of anti-competitive consolidation, this conversation sheds valuable light on the evolving incentive structures that brought us to where we are today.

With Gratitude & Solidarity,

Bill Moyer

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Reconnect America is hosted by Bill Moyer, co-author of the book Solutionary Rail: A People-powered Campaign to Electrify America’s Railroads and Open Corridors to a Clean Energy Future. Check out the essays and supplemental posts that complement this podcast HERE.

Learn more, get involved and pitch in to support the work of Solutionary Rail at SolutionaryRail.org. Keep the podcast ads-free and without paywalls by making a tax-deductible donation HERE.

Earlier this month, I reached out to Jess Conard in the hopes of interviewing her for the Reconnect America podcast. I hardly expected that just a few days later we would be meeting face-to-face—along with my friend Beka Economopoulos, co-founder and Director of The Natural History Museum—in my cabin-studio in the woods of Vashon Island, Washington.

Jess is a resident of East Palestine, Ohio, where the 2023 derailment of a Norfolk Southern train and the subsequent decision to vent and burn over 115,000 gallons of toxic vinyl chloride caused an environmental and public health disaster whose consequences will be unfolding for decades to come.

In the aftermath of the derailment, Jess dove headlong into studying the countless layers of profit-driven corner-cutting and neglect that led to and exacerbated the disaster. Earlier this year, she launched Rail Watch, an organization aimed at protecting the safety of trackside communities across North America.

Community organizing and coalition-building is of vital importance in a moment of political timidity on the part of our elected officials, regulatory rollback by executive agencies, and the entrenched captivity of railroad and other corporations to the unfettered power of financial interests. Our conversation focused not just on what happened in East Palestine, but also on how to build from the power we have to the power we need to bring about a world where communities are not endangered, but rather served by the infrastructure that passes through them.

I hope you find our conversation as informative and inspiring as I did!

With Gratitude & Solidarity,

Bill Moyer

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Earlier this month, I reached out to Jess Conard in the hopes of interviewing her for the Reconnect America podcast. I hardly expected that just a few days later we would be meeting face-to-face—along with my friend Beka Economopoulos, co-founder and Director of The Natural History Museum—in my cabin-studio in the woods of Vashon Island, Washington.

Jess is a resident of East Palestine, Ohio, where the 2023 derailment of a Norfolk Southern train and the subsequent decision to vent and burn over 115,000 gallons of toxic vinyl chloride caused an environmental and public health disaster whose consequences will be unfolding for decades to come

In the aftermath of the derailment, Jess dove headlong into studying the countless layers of profit-driven corner-cutting and neglect that led to and exacerbated the disaster. Earlier this year, she launched Rail Watch, an organization aimed at protecting the safety of trackside communities across North America.

Community organizing and coalition-building is of vital importance in a moment of political timidity on the part of our elected officials, regulatory rollback by executive agencies, and the entrenched captivity of railroad and other corporations to the unfettered power of financial interests. Our conversation focused not just on what happened in East Palestine, but also on how to build from the power we have to the power we need to bring about a world where communities are not endangered, but rather served by the infrastructure that passes through them.

I hope you will take a few minutes to watch the preview above—and keep an eye out for the full interview, coming soon!

With Gratitude & Solidarity,

Bill Moyer

Dear Friends,

Solutionary Rail has long advocated for co-locating electric transmission on railroad rights of way in order to build a national super-grid. Our 2016 book and subsequent work has consistently pointed out that the failed reliance on private initiatives to create new, contiguous transmission corridors is folly. Maps of US wind and solar resources demonstrate the potential for abundant, affordable electricity and opportunities for rural communities, electric utilities, and tribes (not to mention railroads, industry, and the public) to benefit from use of existing rights of way.

Over the years, Solutionary Rail has advocated for federal action to describe not just the need for transmission, but also the value of such investments and the cost of failing to to so. In fall of 2024, a study from the Department of Energy's Grid Development Office did just that. It analyzed the potential savings the US could capture if transmission investments are made. That study compared three technologies:

1. Conventional high voltage alternating current (HVAC) transmission, i.e. "AC" in the bar chart below,

2. High voltage direct current (HVDC), currently used for efficient point-to-point transmission, i.e. “P2P” in the bar chart below, and

3. Multi-terminal HVDC, i.e. "MT" in the bar chart below, utilizing advanced multi-terminal converters, which results in the greatest potential benefits to consumers across the transmission options.

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On Thursday, February 5, 2026 that work took another significant step forward with Congressman Kevin Mullin’s (CA-15) introduction of the Rail and Highway Transmission Planning Act H.R. 7405. This bill takes the next steps to identify opportunities and obstacles to co-location of transmission on existing rights of way. It includes the three technologies mentioned above, as well as the potential for use of buried—in addition to above-ground—transmission.

Here is a statement by the congressman, taken from his press release:

“Consumers across America are seeing their utility bills skyrocket and we need to make it easier to expand the grid so electricity can be delivered in an efficient and more sustainable way. There are tens of thousands of miles of highways and rail lines across the U.S., and by identifying where electrical lines can be safely built along these transportation corridors, my Rail and Highway Transmission Planning Act would help modernize America’s electrical grid, reduce costs for consumers, and accelerate our transition to cleaner, more reliable energy.” ~ Congressman Kevin Mullin (CA-15)

Solutionary Rail is proud to have been involved in the creation of this bill. Its introduction in the U.S. House of Representatives marks a major milestone. Please share this great news and urge your member of Congress to cosponsor the Rail and Highway Transmission Planning Act.

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Here is Solutionary Rail’s endorsement, sent to Congressman Mullin’s office on February 4, 2026:

Solutionary Rail endorses the Rail and Highway Transmission Planning Act of 2026

For decades the challenge of establishing new, contiguous transmission corridors has impeded our country from modernizing and connecting our electric grids, stifled investment in power generation, and robbed us of the resilience, safety, and affordability our communities and businesses need to thrive.

Today, an estimated 2.4 terawatts of proposed generation and storage—nearly twice existing US generation—sits stranded in interconnection queues for lack of transmission. Meanwhile, the US is rapidly falling behind the rest of the world in the electrification of its transportation and energy infrastructure. New demands on the grid in the form of data centers are causing the electric bills of working families to skyrocket. And aging infrastructure is igniting wildfires that are costing lives and destroying communities. All the while, a collective failure of imagination and political will has blinded us from seeing the solution hiding in plain sight.

That solution is co-locating transmission along existing, contiguous rail and highway rights of way. These corridors already serve as the circulatory system for our economy. It is long past time to harness them as the electron superhighways of the future.

The Rail and Highway Transmission Planning Act of 2026 takes essential next steps toward abundant, affordable electricity for a resilient and thriving future. The US Department of Energy’s Grid Deployment Office estimates that accelerated transmission expansion could save the nation $270–$490 billion through 2050. That range spans the three transmission technologies included in this bill: high voltage alternating current (HVAC), high voltage direct current (HVDC), and multi-terminal HVDC utilizing advanced multi-terminal converters, which results in the greatest benefits to consumers across the transmission options.

In a time dominated by the politics of polarization and division, finding common cause for common sense solutions to deliver resilience, prosperity, and abundance for our nation could not be more important. Solutionary Rail urges Congress to set aside differences and step up to the challenge of literally reconnecting and powering our country’s future by passing the Rail and Highway Transmission Planning Act of 2026.

With Gratitude & Solidarity,

Bill Moyer
Executive Director, Solutionary Rail
Host of the Reconnect America podcast

Here’s what the study in the bill would accomplish:

• Review existing transmission lines in transportation corridors and determine best practices for planning, financing, and developing such projects;

• Evaluate rights of way that are most suitable for transmission construction and assess cost and time savings as compared to conventional siting;

• Analyze how co-locating transmission lines with highways or railways could enhance grid reliability, reduce congestion, and lower energy costs; and

• Develop an interagency action plan and guidance for federal, state, local, and private stakeholders.

Full text of the bill is available here.

For background, I thought it might be useful to provide you with some of the maps and images from our book and slidedeck that demonstrate the potential of co-location of transmission on railroad rights of way. Those are below.

It should be noted that since the publication of our book, the potential of buried HVDC has been promoted by both the proposed bi-directional SOO Green project and most recently by the nearly complete Champlain Hudson Power Express project in which ~40% of its 339-mile corridor is buried on railroad corridor. This 2021 Volts podcast episode marked a pivot in the technology. Readers may also enjoy the 2024 Volts episode on Solutionary Rail here.

Thank you for your attention to what we believe is an important part of a just and sustainable future for the US. Now, please use this information to urge your Congress member to cosponsor the Rail and Highway Transmission Planning Act.

Forward Together!

Bill Moyer

Maps and Images:

Though the railroad industry was deregulated in 1980, the public was always supposed to retain access to rail service that it could rely upon at a competitive price.

That promise has been broken, and Wall Street is only partially to blame. A lack of clarity and specificity in the statutes that authorize the Surface Transportation Board (STB) to regulate U.S. railroads has also prevented this agency from exercising the authority it is meant to have. That is why a growing base of support is coalescing around the bipartisan Reliable Rail Service Act.

Ann Warner, the guest of today’s episode, is one of the figures at the forefront of this coalition. She serves as managing partner at Ann Warner LLC and spokesperson for the Freight Rail Customer Alliance (FRCA), an “alliance of freight rail shippers impacted by continued unrestrained freight rail market dominance over rail-dependent shippers.”

Ann’s legal expertise and her work at the FRCA make this episode a perfect follow-up to our fascinating conversation earlier this month with FRCA President Emily Regis. Whereas Emily focused more on the concrete ways in which Class I railroads take advantage of their customers—who often have no other transportation options—Ann helps us understand the legal structures that allow these abuses to continue.

In particular, Ann illuminates why the Reliable Rail Service Act is necessary to right these wrongs and begin to put U.S. railroads back in service of public interests rather than Wall Street greed.

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Reconnect America is hosted by Bill Moyer, co-author of the book Solutionary Rail: A People-powered Campaign to Electrify America’s Railroads and Open Corridors to a Clean Energy Future. Check out the essays and supplemental posts that complement this podcast HERE.

Learn more, get involved and pitch in to support the work of Solutionary Rail at SolutionaryRail.org. Keep the podcast ads-free and without paywalls by making a tax-deductible donation HERE.

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Dear Friends --

Throughout 2025, Solutionary Rail has made unprecedented strides on every front. Our ideas and expertise are shaping the national narrative and guiding key legislative, policy, and research initiatives.

But we need your help now in order to sustain this momentum, champion our vision and values, and grow our capacity in 2026. Our no-paywalls strategy maximizes our reach, but the work is still only possible due to the generosity of people like you.

Will you pitch in to carry our momentum forward by making a tax-deductible contribution?

Some highlights from this year that we look forward to carrying through into 2026 are:

• Reconnect America podcast reached nearly 35 thousand listeners with a vision for US rail transport that builds common cause among unlikely allies, appeals to the best in people, and puts rail infrastructure in service of public interests over Wall Street profiteers.

• SR and our allies in Washington State got a bill passed to improve the frequency and reliability of the Amtrak Cascades service, moving the needle forward on a mode shift of passengers from highways and air travel onto rail. Another bill is in the works now, for the 2026 legislative session.

• The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) included key components of our Barge2Rail proposal in its Lower Snake River transportation alternatives study. Their final report will include modeling of SR’s research and proposals.

• SR made public a Surface Transportation Board (STB) email that was leaked to us, exposing blatantly partisan rhetoric used by STB Chair Patrick Fuchs. U.S. Senators used this email to forcefully interrogate nominees to the STB on their commitment to the Board’s independence, thus standing up for the legitimacy of this critical adjudicatory body.

As we celebrate these successes and look to build on them in the new year, we ask that you recommit to the realization of the Solutionary Rail vision by making a tax-deductible, one-time or monthly contribution HERE.

We cannot do this work without you and are grateful for all the ways you contribute to the SR Vision!

With gratitude and solidarity,

Bill Moyer
Executive Director

Solutionary Rail is a project of the Backbone Campaign, a 501c3 not for profit organization. Donations made here, or sent via check made out to Solutionary Rail (or Solutionary Rail written in the Memo Line) will be designated solely for Solutionary Rail.

We recently released Episode Four of our main Reconnect America series. It explores in depth the story of the unique U.S. experiment in private ownership of the critical national infrastructure that railroads constitute, and the concessions we have made over the course of a century and a half to sustain that system. If you haven’t listened to it yet, we highly recommend you check it out.

As we prepare to continue the story into the present day with Episode Five, we are exploring the experiences of shippers who depend on railroads to move their products, by speaking with some of the folks who represent these businesses in negotiations with railroads and before the Surface Transportation Board (STB).

Emily Regis is one of these people. Emily is president of the Freight Rail Customer Alliance, an “alliance of freight rail shippers impacted by continued unrestrained freight rail market dominance over rail-dependent shippers.” Emily is also Fuel Resource Administrator for the Arizona Electric Power Cooperative and President of the National Coal Transportation Association.

Now, those familiar with Solutionary Rail will probably know that much of our work has been focused on facilitating a transition away from fossil fuels. So you might be wondering: why are we talking with someone who works on behalf of coal producers and their customers?

For one thing, as we highlighted in Episodes Two and Four of our main series, a large part of the reason why the U.S. was once able to balance the public purpose of rail transport with the need of shareholders to earn a profit is because of the principle of common carriage. Railroads once had an obligation to provide reasonable service upon reasonable request to every shipper along their lines. It was only once they were allowed to discriminate, de-market, and turn business away that the system ceased to serve the public. Coal shippers have no other option than to move their product by rail, and so they—alongside shippers of a few other rail-dependent commodities—are especially vulnerable to the railroads’ ongoing abuse of their market power.

But there is another reason why having this kind of conversation is so crucial to the Reconnect America project. One of the central pillars of the vision we’re developing here is the idea that when it comes to rail transport, fighting for the public interest is a cause that transcends partisan politics. It is not that we don’t have disagreements. But if we cannot talk with people that have different perspectives on some things, then we will never learn enough about them to find out what we have in common.

As you will hear in this conversation—which took place in early October, between Emily and Solutionary Rail Director and Reconnect America Host Bill Moyer—we do have a lot in common. And we also have a ton to learn from people like Emily. When we advocate for a rail system that better serves communities, rail customers are one of the key intermediaries in that relationship. It is their needs that have to be amplified and addressed.

The picture that Emily paints in this conversation is one of a rail system dominated by a business model that benefits only the railroads and their shareholders, at the expense of customers. It is a system that has seen cuts to service, a weaponization of surcharges, a suppression of complaints against the railroads for fear of retaliation, and a process to address these complaints that is impossibly bureaucratic and resource-consuming—and not all that helpful even when it succeeds. We discussed the dangers of the pending merger between Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern, for shippers that would be left captive to the monopoly power of a single railroad to move their freight. And we considered possible ways to re-envision how we do rail transport in this country.

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Reconnect America is hosted by Bill Moyer, co-author of the book Solutionary Rail: A People-powered Campaign to Electrify America’s Railroads and Open Corridors to a Clean Energy Future. Check out the essays and supplemental posts that complement this podcast HERE.

Learn more, get involved and pitch in to support the work of Solutionary Rail at SolutionaryRail.org. Keep the podcast ads-free and without paywalls by making a tax-deductible donation HERE.

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Rail systems around the world are mostly owned and operated by the public. But the U.S. has only ever flirted with public ownership, and mostly in moments where this seemed like the only way to preserve a functional railroad system. Instead, for almost a century, we pursued a model of regulating corporate railroads to fulfill their public purpose while sustaining the revenue needed to keep them afloat. Meeting both of these objectives proved to be a balancing act which took decades to achieve, by which time it was already coming undone, thanks to massive public investments in competing modes of transportation. While it lasted, however, this system fueled the rise of what was, at the time, the largest middle class ever known.

In Episodes 2 and 3, we focused on how the public responded to the partial collapse of this system in 1970 by creating Amtrak, a publicly-owned passenger railroad which relieved railroad corporations of their costly obligation to move people. We also discussed how Amtrak was nonetheless tasked with making a profit on this money-losing service, forcing it to eviscerate the nation’s passenger rail system in pursuit of that goal.

In this episode, we retrace this history from the freight rail side of things, showing how our refusal to take full public responsibility for this critical infrastructure, even when circumstances seemed to cry out for it, led us on a wild goose chase in search of another path to stability. That chase carried us through two industry-wide death spirals, two merger waves, two temporary nationalizations, and a record-shattering bankruptcy, until legislators finally decided to change the paradigm—not by taking on the cost of providing the service, but rather by sacrificing service and giving free rein to Wall Street greed, all in the name of economic efficiency.

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Reconnect America is hosted by Bill Moyer, co-author of the book Solutionary Rail: A People-powered Campaign to Electrify America’s Railroads and Open Corridors to a Clean Energy Future. Check out the essays and supplemental posts that complement this podcast HERE.

Learn more, get involved and pitch in to support the work of Solutionary Rail at SolutionaryRail.org. Keep the podcast ads-free and without paywalls by making a tax-deductible donation HERE.

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Recommended: Phillip Longman’s October 2024 article arguing that fixing our freight rail system is a prerequisite to re-industrializing the U.S., “Train Drain: How deregulation and private equity have gutted the U.S. freight rail system—and with it, the promise of America’s industrial renewal”

Co-written and produced by Bill Moyer and Sasha Elenko. Engineering by August Moore and Tom Stiles. Musical theme by Ken Jacobsen and additional music by Ota Prota.

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But it wasn’t the NTSB nomination that dominated the questioning. It was the rising sense of alarm about whether the Surface Transportation Board (STB), an independent adjudicatory body, retains the independence necessary to defend public, shipper, and national interests in deciding whether the proposed Union Pacific/Norfolk Southern merger will be allowed to be consummated. Or, will this once-independent body be taking their cues from a pay-to-play White House to which UP CEO Vena visits to flatter Trump and UP makes donations toward the new White House ballroom?

A crisis of confidence in STB
Senator Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), who sat in for Ranking member Maria Cantwell (D-WA), bookended the questioning for the Democrats, while rail shipper champion Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) hit hardest with a clear and deep understanding of the STB’s role and issues at stake.

In the video above, Luján begins by asking about the controversial email leaked to Solutionary Rail and made public on Oct. 29 (more below). He presses the point that such politicized communications in a professional independent agency may be a violation of the Hatch Act. Then, he closes with the most important question of all: “How can the STB function effectively while subjected to political interference and coercion?”—establishing the dominant and most relevant theme of the hearing.

The excerpt below communicates the seriousness with which Senator Baldwin and others take the attacks on Surface Transportation Board independence.

Senator Baldwin and her staff confirmed the veracity of the leaked email that Solutionary Rail provided them. At the confirmation hearing, the Senator confronted Michelle Schultz, a sitting STB board member who is being nominated for a second term. Schultz had previously denied awareness of the partisan email. At the hearing she acknowledged that the email had been sent by STB Chair Patrick Fuchs. She also claimed that she hadn’t seen it until after her pre-hearing meeting with Baldwin. Her and others’ excuse for Fuchs was that the language may have been used across agencies and that he was just copying a partisan template. But this excuse inflamed rather than assuaged concerns that the professional staff at the STB are receiving signals of a partisan takeover.

If it is to effectively execute its role as an independent adjudicatory body, partisanship has no place at the Surface Transportation Board. STB decisions impact the entire country. Neither railroads nor shippers nor passengers—nor the issues for which they require adjudication—are partisan in nature. And the professional staff at the STB seem to proudly transcend partisanship in the services they provide.

Schultz’ fellow STB nominee Richard Kloster, facing questions from Senator Luján, appeared to have significant shortcomings in his understanding of basic STB procedures designed to protect the Board’s independence. For someone who has spent 40 years in the railroad industry, Kloster’s responses did not exactly instill confidence that he could effectively adjudicate conflicts or withstand pressure from the White House. That could be by design.

Still, by comparison with Schultz, Kloster appeared outwardly resolute in his commitment to STB independence. When pressed by Senator Baldwin, Schultz refused to condemn the illegal firing of her “former colleague” STB Board Member Robert Primus. Senator Baldwin leaned in, asking whether board members should be removed if they do not conform to the wishes of the President. Schultz contradicted her own assertions that the STB is independent with the closing claim that she serves “at the pleasure of the President”. Senator Baldwin appeared appropriately appalled.

It is clear why Board Member Schultz was so visibly uncomfortable throughout the hearing. Her responses illuminate the impossible bind of being subject to pressure from the White House while having to deny being under such pressure.

• Clearly, Congress needs to intervene so that the STB can do its job at this critical juncture.

• No one should be confirmed to the STB—nor the NTSB—until the independence of these agencies is restored and the illegally fired members reinstated.

• Congress also needs to affirm, clarify, and strengthen the authority of the Surface Transportation Board in the 2026 Surface Transportation Reauthorization.

In 2015, Senator John Thune (R-SD) championed the Surface Transportation Board Reauthorization Act to expand the Board from 3 to 5 members—and, as an affirmation of its independence from any single administration, to move it out from under the Department of Transportation. The 2026 Surface Transportation Reauthorization is a subject Solutionary Rail and the Reconnect America podcast will be covering at length.

For now, help us build upon the over 400 emails sent to Congress supporting the reinstatement of Robert Primus, using the tool we’ve made available at SolutionaryRail.org/RestorePrimus. After sending emails to your members of Congress you will land at a page with spreadsheets for calling members of the relevant Senate and House committees. There’s also a link to a page for sharing whatever actions you’ve been able to take. Only together will we be able to restore and strengthen the Surface Transportation Board’s capacity to make sure US railroads serve Main Street, not just Wall Street.

To close, I leave you with a refreshing example of bipartisan (trans-partisan) leadership exhibited by Senator Tim Sheehy (R-MT). His first question about the proposed UP/NS merger gets to the heart of the matter. “The free market must also serve its customers effectively”—adding, what is the STB going to do “…if in the end, [the merger] does happen, [to make sure] we are not placing the needs of our farmers and ranchers, our manufacturers and our rural communities who depend on an increasingly consolidated rail industry to serve them, their needs, and their businesses [in jeopardy]?” As for his followup question whether the highest responsibility of the board is safety versus the business health of railroads or businesses they serve, he’s either testing the nominees or he’s exhibiting a common misunderstanding of the STB’s role. Regardless, it doesn't speak well of either nominee that they did not clarify this in their response. They both should be crystal clear that it is the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) that regulates all rail safety issues. The Surface Transportation Board regulates the economic impacts and service of the railroads to protect the public and national interests.

That aside, Senator Sheehy and the joint letter submitted into the record is a breath of fresh air. I encourage you to watch the video.

Less corrupting and confusing interference from the White House and more bipartisan direction from Congress on the role, mandate, and powers of the STB to protect American businesses and communities is desperately needed in the coming year.

Senate Commerce Committee Contact List

Senator Ted Cruz, Chair of the Senate Commerce Committee has scheduled a confirmation hearing for this coming Thursday, 11/06. The committee will be considering the nominations of an NTSB member and two people to the Surface Transportation Board (STB).

For those less familiar with the weeds of US railroad history and regulation, the STB is the body that regulates US rail service and competition. It inherited its regulatory oversight of rail service and antimonopoly protections from the Interstate Commerce Commission, the first US regulatory agency, established in 1887.

One of the STB nominees Michelle Schultz is a current member of the board, being appointed for a second term. The other is a new nominee Richard Kloster. Their qualifications are not the issue. The issue of great urgency is the crisis of legitimacy and the independence of the Surface Transportation Board itself, brought about by President Trump’s illegal firing (without cause) of board member and recent chair Robert Primus. His firing, without cause, directly threatens the STB’s ability to act as an independent adjudicatory body. It also represents a troubling trend explored by the NYTimes here.

The STB is charged with making highly consequential decisions that impact the entire country. Though this transcends any individual, the firing of Robert Primus provides a litmus test for STB independence. Failing to pushback and reinstate board member Primus, an action that must be led by the Senate Commerce Committee which is responsible for approving STB nominations, would send a corrupting and corrosive message to the rest of the board, Congress, and the President.

Considering all that we are learning, there is cause for alarm. My recent post shared an email that was leaked to Solutionary Rail and what it reveals about the ability - or more likely inability - of current STB Chair Patrick Fuchs (pictured below) to withstand political pressure from above. With the largest proposed railroad merger in history (Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern) about to be considered by the STB, Union Pacific CEO Jim Vena flattering Trump and Union Pacific donating to the Trump Ballroom, the current independence of the Surface Transportation Board could neither be more important, nor more in jeopardy.

Current STB Chair Fuchs is a smart and reasonable person, but does he look like someone able to say “No” to President Donald Trump?

For Americans who care about the future of freight and passenger rail service, the next couple days may offer the best - hopefully not the last - opportunity to take a stand for, and claw back, the independence of the US Surface Transportation Board.

The decision makers who can make the most difference in the coming week are the members of the Senate Commerce Committee. They need to hear this clear and urgent message from as many people and organizations as possible:

“The Senate Commerce Committee must refuse to confirm STB nominees - AND - insist that no STB board proceedings take place (or resume post shutdown) until board member Robert Primus is reseated.”

I put together this roster with phone numbers for the Committee offices and Committee members. Please copy, share, and use it to send that message.

Senate Commerce Committee Contact List

Tell Congress to Reinstate Robert Primus

Calls to the Senate Commerce offices a Senate members’ offices in the coming days could make a powerful and timely difference. Warm up by using our email tool here, personalize your message to let Congress members know that the fair and transparent regulation of US railroads is essential for all of us.

No one person or organization alone can restore the independence of this critical agency, but together we stand a chance.

Forward Together!

Bill Moyer
Solutionary Rail

Solutionary Rail obtained this internal email from Surface Transportation Board Chair Patrick Fuchs to the nonpartisan staff of the STB. That staff clearly take their political independence, professionalism, and adjudicatory mission extremely seriously. So, someone was alarmed enough by the hints of partisanship his email contains to leak this communication.

STB Chair Fuchs’ email to the STB staff:

“President Trump opposes a government shutdown, and strongly supports the enactment of H.R. 5371, which is a clean Continuing Resolution to fund the government through November 21, and already passed the U.S. House of Representatives.

“Unfortunately, Democrats are blocking this Continuing Resolution in the U.S. Senate due to unrelated policy demands. If Congressional Democrats maintain their current posture and refuse to pass a clean Continuing Resolution to keep the government funded before midnight on September 30, 2025, federal appropriated funding will lapse.

“A funding lapse will result in certain government activities ceasing due to a lack of appropriated funding. In addition, designated pre-notified employees of this agency would be temporarily furloughed. P.L. 116-1 would apply.

“The agency has contingency plans in place for executing an orderly shutdown of activities that would be affected by any lapse in appropriations forced by Congressional Democrats. Further information about those plans will be distributed should a lapse occur.”

At first glance, and especially amidst the heightened partisan tensions, it reads as relatively bland. But, when one considers how uncharacteristic it is for Fuchs to express such views, and the inappropriateness of doing so with his nonpartisan staff, it raises the question of WHY?

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• Is he signalling to the White House that he’s part of the team?

• Is he succumbing to pressure to fall in line?

• Or, is he simply feeling liberated to embrace partisanship in this new climate?

If any of those explanations are true, how can Patrick Fuchs be trusted to remain independent in the highly consequential proceedings that will be triggered by the proposed Union Pacific/Norfolk Southern (UP/NS) merger?

Might the Union Pacific’s donation to the White House Ballroom, or UP’s CEO Vena’s friendship with Trump, or something else trigger a call from the White House to Fuchs with instructions to relax the standards for a merger, or simply go through the motions and give it the rubber stamp?

How does the STB retain even the semblance of independence, legitimacy, and its decisions survive future court challenges when the above questions are combined with the interference by the White House in illegally firing Board member Robert Primus without cause?

Fuchs’ email alone may seem like a relatively minor aberration, but all together - it is part of a crisis that needs addressing, and soon. The first step we can take is to call for Robert Primus’ reinstatement to his proper place on the Surface Transportation Board.

Solutionary Rail put together this action tool to call on members of Congress to do just that:

Take Action to Restore Robert Primus

Wow, we interact with a lot of activists and advocates. What’s fascinating about this conversation is that amongst all of our guests thus far—Byron Porter is uniquely industry-adjacent. He brings together history, regulatory knowledge, and experience as a rail shipper and equipment provider for the railroad industry. You are gonna learn a ton from this incredible conversation—and that knowledge is gonna be very useful in the coming Endgame fight over the biggest rail merger in history.

We recorded this prior to the illegal firing of Robert Primus, so that won’t come up. The limits of a regulatory regime ill-prepared to counter the political influence that Union Pacific and the Wall Street profiteers wield is even more apparent today than when we recorded this.

The Wall Street profiteers are getting ready to stuff their pockets with winnings that could cost the country its last chance to put U.S. railroads back on track. Despite not being an activist, Byron is calling for a regulatory and business model revolution, not an evolution. And whether his or some other version of that future wins out—or whether this disastrous merger gets a mere wink and a nod—depends on all of us. What we all do next matters.

I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did.

Forward Together!

-Bill Moyer (host)
Reconnect America
Solutionary Rail

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Recommended pieces from Byron’s excellent Substack, The Pacific:

• “UP Triggers the Endgame”

• “We Need a New Staggers Act”

• “Paper Barriers and Feudal Warlords”

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Reconnect America is hosted by Bill Moyer, co-author of the book Solutionary Rail: A People-powered Campaign to Electrify America’s Railroads and Open Corridors to a Clean Energy Future. Check out the essays and supplemental posts that complement this podcast HERE.

Learn more, get involved and pitch in to support the work of Solutionary Rail at SolutionaryRail.org. Keep the podcast ads-free and without paywalls by making a tax-deductible donation HERE.

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In the coming year or so, the Surface Transportation Board will determine whether to approve or block Union Pacific’s $85-billion acquisition of Norfolk Southern. This signals an attempt by Wall Street to squeeze yet more from this critical infrastructure in order to maximize returns for shareholders.

In 2023, Surface Transportation Board (STB) member Robert Primus was the sole board member to vote against the merger of Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern to form Canadian Pacific Kansas City. President Trump’s recent illegal firing of board member Primus further weakens the STB and corrupts its adjudicatory mandate. The absence of a key critical voice from the Board raises the pressure on concerned workers, shippers, competing railroads, and the public to make their voices heard. Unless Primus is reinstated, the approval of this Wall Street railroad merger is a near done deal.

Railroad workers, in particular, find themselves in a difficult situation. Being divided into several different unions, workers and their union leaders are often forced to choose between accepting concessions for their own particular craft and holding out in the name of industry-wide solidarity. A UP-NS merger involves even higher stakes, as it could very well result in significant cuts to the workforce resulting from the elimination of redundancies between the newly-combined railroads.

To better understand the dilemmas faced by workers in the fight ahead, and to help us pick apart the smokescreens that UP and NS are promulgating in an effort to charm workers into submission, we got in touch with Ron Kaminkow. Ron is a longtime ally and collaborator of Solutionary Rail’s. He is also a co-founder, former general secretary, and current trustee of Railroad Workers United (RWU), a cross-union caucus of railroad workers that aims to build industry-wide solidarity to more effectively stand up to Wall Street’s railroads.

Last month, RWU, passed a resolution unequivocally opposing all future Class One railroad mergers. (Read the press release here.)

Although this conversation between Ron and Reconnect America Host Bill Moyer took place before Robert Primus was fired from the Surface Transportation Board, RWU has also released a statement condemning the move and demanding Primus’ immediate reinstatement. Solutionary Rail will be addressing this in the coming weeks as well.

Ron and Bill’s discussion ranged from this resolution and the stakes involved in the merger for workers, to the service meltdowns that Ron witnessed as a railroad worker during the last merger wave in the 1990s, to the larger question of whether the coast-to-coast transcontinental railroad that UP and NS are proposing to form might not be a better idea if it were owned and overseen by the public.

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Reconnect America is hosted by Bill Moyer, co-author of the book Solutionary Rail: A People-powered Campaign to Electrify America’s Railroads and Open Corridors to a Clean Energy Future. Check out the essays and supplemental posts that complement this podcast HERE.

Learn more, get involved and pitch in to support the work of Solutionary Rail at SolutionaryRail.org. Keep the podcast ads-free and without paywalls by making a tax-deductible donation HERE.

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I hope you'll take some time this Labor Day weekend to listen to my conversation with former Congressman Peter DeFazio, aka Tiger of the House (an honorific and comparison with the great Oregon Senator Wayne Morse, the Tiger of the Senate).

Serving as chair of the powerful House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee for the last four of his 36 years in Congress (and as a member for all 36), he has a priceless and practically peerless perspective on why it is so important for government to be a counterforce to the insatiable appetite of Wall Street.

Mr. DeFazio's career spanned a period when, to his dismay, the checks on big banks, controls on corporate trade, and limits on election spending all went off the rails. He saw firsthand the rise of "Precision Scheduled Railroading" and how it left service, communities, and public interests behind, as Wall Street targeted railroads as an extractable resource, not unlike the forests and communities he also fought to protect.

In 2022, alongside the late Representative Donald Payne J.R., who tragically passed away last year, DeFazio introduced H.R. 8649, the Freight Rail Shipping Fair Market Act. Solutionary Rail was honored to have provided a Rep. Payne a briefing ahead of his taking over the Railroads Pipelines and Hazardous Materials Subcommittee in 2021. Much of that was strongly reflected in the H.R. 8649. In our interview, DeFazio reveals how the lobbying power of the Class I railroads, and their ability to retaliate against their customers for trying to get better service, ultimately killed the bill.

A progressive who represented a largely rural and politically diverse district, Peter DeFazio sought to create common cause with common sense solutions, always putting communities, the environment, and long term resilience ahead of special interests.

We could learn a lot from him, and this interview is an opportunity to do so. I especially hope the rail shippers out there tune into this one. In the fights ahead, we need shippers to stand for a rail system that works for big and small shippers, urban and rural trackside communities, workers, and passengers alike. We'll be stronger if we fight shoulder to shoulder with no one left behind.

Listen and enjoy!

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Reconnect America is hosted by Bill Moyer, co-author of the book Solutionary Rail: A People-powered Campaign to Electrify America’s Railroads and Open Corridors to a Clean Energy Future. Check out the essays and supplemental posts that complement this podcast HERE.

Learn more, get involved and pitch in to support the work of Solutionary Rail at SolutionaryRail.org. Keep the podcast ads-free and without paywalls by making a tax-deductible donation HERE.

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Greg Regan is president of the Transportation Trades Department (TTD) of the AFL-CIO. He has been an outspoken advocate in defense of workers and shippers over the last several years, as Class I railroads have made deeps cuts to both their workforce and the quality and reliability of their service in pursuit of stock buybacks and dividends for predatory “activist investors.”

We got a chance to talk with Greg about the Union Pacific’s proposed $85-billion acquisition of Norfolk Southern, a pair of important pieces of legislation recently reintroduced in Congress, the importance of solidarity between workers across different transportation modes, and more.

This is the first in a string of interviews tackling the latest developments in the railroad industry and their implications for ongoing attempts to put rail transport back in service of public interests and solving 21st-century problems. Stay tuned for more!

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Reconnect America is hosted by Bill Moyer, co-author of the book Solutionary Rail: A People-powered Campaign to Electrify America’s Railroads and Open Corridors to a Clean Energy Future. Check out the essays and supplemental posts that complement this podcast HERE.

Learn more, get involved and pitch in to support the work of Solutionary Rail at SolutionaryRail.org. Keep the podcast ads-free and without paywalls by making a tax-deductible donation HERE.

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