Railroad Mergers and Public policy.

The points raised by researcher Robert Nelson in his paper about railroad mergers and public policy are examined. Nelson has painted a dismal picture both of railroad operations and of public policy. Rail commutation has for some time been a drain on the railroads, and here the best course of action, as Nelson suggests, would be to coordinate it with buses, subways and other forms of metropolitan transit under public auspices. As to intercity passenger service, some high density segments can make money. The redundancy of the railroad plant has been apparent for years. A policy is called for of selective abandonment of branches and discontinuance of service where studies clearly show unprofitabiiltiy.