Expediency over principle describes a unanimous vote Jan. 27 by the three Surface Transportation Board (STB) members—Acting Chairman Ann Begeman, a Republican, and Democrats Dan Elliott and Deb Miller.
News item: Republican Ann Dawn Begeman, 52, was confirmed by the Senate in December to a second term—expiring Dec. 31, 2020—on the five-person Surface Transportation Board (STB). Expect her to be named STB Chairman by President Trump, succeeding Democrat Dan Elliott, who was President Obama’s choice as Chairman.
Notwithstanding this era of fake news, there remain stories you just cannot make up—instances where truth is, indeed, stranger than fiction.
When Herbert Hoover was President and Republicans controlled the White House and both congressional chambers, there was produced the 1930 Smoot-Hawley tariff boosting import duties to record levels, sparking a global trade war and contributing to the depth and length of the Great Depression.
Pity economic regulators. The more they seek the middle-of-the-road, the greater risk both sides assail them. Economist Sidney L. Miller wrote, “It seems clear that our railways are regulated well, rather than wisely.”
For newly minted Amtrak President Charles Wickliffe (Wick) Moorman IV, a winter of discontent is nigh.
If you think a theater of the absurd is limited to presidential candidates less popular than the Grinch who stole Christmas, you’re missing Surface Transportation Board (STB) dysfunction where Chairman Dan Elliott’s leadership is infuriating fellow Democrat Deb Miller and Republican member Ann Begeman.
Watching Washington, August 2016 Railway Age: Between the euphoria of achievement and the agony of despair resides intermodal—the rail carriage of trailers and containers that have prior and/or subsequent transport by other modes. It’s no new kid on the block.
News items: A convoy of self-driving trucks recently traversed Europe. Driverless trucks are undergoing public-road testing in California and Nevada. And Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx supports development of vehicles “that can drive themselves better than a human.” Baby boomers may be skeptical, but not digital-native millennials.
At a time when polemics is delivering knockout blows to civil discourse and collaboration, a 78-year-old former amateur boxer—still punching above his weight—has advice on peaceful dispute resolution that lawmakers, regulators, rail executives and labor leaders would do well to read, mark and inwardly digest.
