For the past four decades, former Norfolk & Western and Southern Pacific locomotive engineer Doyle McCormack has coddled the most familiar steam locomotive operating in North America.
A recurring and intractable thread tying together railroad history is that when the choice has been between economic liberty and government intrusion, selecting the latter has repetitively discouraged capital investment, diminished service quality, adversely affected safety, and sooner than later caused hand-wringing among those most dependent on rail transportation.
This is about a highway homicide — and we know who dunnit. The perp long ago was identified by state and federal authorities. Yet Congress refuses to order the collar, closing its eyes to a mayhem playing out at every hour, on every federal-aid roadway and adversely affecting every taxpayer and every motorist in the wallet, while simultaneously turning on its head the concept of economic efficiency.
For decades, even when it was designated by other euphemisms such as “enhanced bus”, so-called “bus rapid transit” (BRT) was repeatedly hyped as a kind of interim service on the way to light rail transit (LRT).
