Derailed. Why America is accidentaly faced with so many different incidents.

The imbalance of public and private interests that began more than 100 years ago is at the heart of modern rail accidents in the United States

In the United States, a series of man-made disasters has been going on for the past few months, and the lion’s share of them is associated with accidents on the railway. Almost everyone has heard about the largest disaster in Ohio, where the area was contaminated with vinyl chloride, but this case is far from the only one. The trains began to derail as if on schedule. However, some explosions with fires began with a very enviable regularity at industrial enterprises. It would seem that the country is quite developed, but suddenly such a prohibitive number of accidents appeared. Let’s take a look at what’s going on with the railroads, and why America is accidentaly faced with so many different incidents.

Formation

It is impossible to exaggerate the role of the railroad in the development of the United States. This is one of the factors that allowed America to assume the image that we know today.
The development of railroads in America began in the middle of the 19th century, and at first the growth was exponential, roughly corresponding to the growth of industrial needs. Indeed, in the first place, the railways served the industry, while passenger transportation was on the second place. 
Everything developed so rapidly that by 1916 the Americans had built more than 400,000 kilometres of railways. Naturally, such a simplification of logistics could not but have the most favourable effect on the growth of production and exports. The railways began to bring incredible profits to their owners, and investments in this industry became one of the most promising. 
Almost everyone who could invest in it began to engage in both the transportation of goods and passengers. So, it was at this moment that the very crack was laid, which would later lead to disaster.
The fact is that the railways were built not according to some general plan, but in accordance with the requirements of the market. They built railways exactly where it was possible to invest immediately. Thus, they were guided not by a strategic development plan, but by short-term profit. 

Break

Meanwhile, business grew, and the railroads became more prestigious. The passenger transport sector has also grown, with trains becoming truly luxurious. The construction of passenger stations began, many of which can be called architectural masterpieces. On trains, one could go on a ‘cruise’ around the country, with all the attendant comfort. And at the beginning of the twentieth century it seemed that this was all forever... 

Pennsylvania Railroad Station in New York. It was demolished in 1963.

After ‘promiscuity’, rampant motorisation was the second harbinger of disaster. People began to give preference to personal transport, wanting to get there quickly and cheaply, rather than slowly and luxuriously. The segment of passenger transportation began to decline significantly, and the industry could not recover after that.  
Things were a little better with cargo transportation, but difficulties began even there. Here again, cars, namely trucks, acted as competitors. You remember that the railway tracks were not built in accordance with reasonable planning, but as the investor wanted. This led to the fact that it was not possible to provide the logistics needs of the entire country with the help of railways. It was then that the very culture of American truckers was born. 

Catastrophe

 In 1967, the final blow was dealt to American railroads. The US Postal Service abandoned rail transportation, and it was thanks to mail transportation that many companies still somehow remained afloat. This led to a whole series of bankruptcies, mergers, and other phenomena common in crises. Here the federal government had to intervene, the remnants of the companies were actually nationalised and planted on subsidies, well, in order to maintain at least some passenger traffic in the country. As for freight transportation, with the help of a system of benefits, the industry managed to be kept from complete collapse. 
However, all this led to the fact that only 220,000 out of more than 400,000 kilometres of roads remained. At the same time, almost 80 percent of the routes did not serve passengers. This is the result of their market economy.
Nobody wanted to engage in modernisation, and everyone finally relaxed after the collapse of the USSR. Industry in the United States worked at a minimum level, everything was taken abroad, well, it was just more economically feasible, and they didn’t want to spoil the environment at home. The dollar as an international currency closed all issues with the economy, the railways in the existing volumes were simply not needed. And somehow imperceptibly for the layman and very gradually, the same catastrophe occurred, which brought the railway network into a state completely unsuitable for full-fledged operation.

30 years later

When Donald Trump became President of the United States, one of his main theses was a call to return production to the country. He perfectly understood the catastrophic nature of the situation, because he came from business and saw the situation realistically. Indeed, it was possible to live on the export of the dollar, but this is far from the most reliable strategic model. Nevertheless, everyone was happy with everything, the initiatives stalled, and nothing was radically decided then. Quite a bit of time passed, and Russia began to conduct special military operation...
Somehow it suddenly turned out that China has long been stepping on the heels of the United States, and is not against strengthening its currency instead of supporting the dollar. And in general, it has become more than a serious competitor with a modern technological base. Production in Europe has suddenly become unprofitable due to the cost of energy, and the US cannot allow the EU to purchase resources from Russia, well, it's not comme il faut amid the general political background. 
It turned out that Trump was very right when he sounded the alarm and called for the return of enterprises to the United States. He had to hastily deal with the restoration of production and their transfer from Europe. The fact that their industrial base was in an absolutely deplorable state, and a hasty attempt to launch old factories led to a series of disasters with explosions and fires, this is not the worst scenario, however...
Industry requires advanced logistics. No one was engaged in railways all this time, all the problems only worsened over time. Some of the permanently operated tracks are in a relatively acceptable condition. Then it was urgently necessary to organise logistics within the country. But the tracks no longer allow one to safely move along them, so we can observe constant train wrecks in recent months. This is a consequence of the launch of traffic on rotten infrastructure. 
Will the United States be able to somehow correct the current situation? Well, if a few fundamental legal issues are eliminated, and sums comparable to their own military budget are invested in the restoration of logistics and industry, the situation will begin to improve in a few years. 

The moral is…

The whole situation described above is the result of pure market regulation. This happens when each part of the system is chasing maximum profit, and no one thinks about the overall strategy and prospects. Of course, there should be elements of self-regulation in the economy, but someone should also carry out strategic planning. Otherwise, miscalculations can backfire in a hundred years, as, in fact, happened... Sometimes it is more important to think about the prospects than to chase a quick profit. The problem here is that only the state is able to think about long-term prospects, business, by definition, is not capable of building on the basis of the situation in several generations. It needs to earn money right now, and preferably more. So what to do? You just need to strike a balance, and everything will be fine. 

By Yuri Terekh