Trains and Boats and Planes 2015 Style.

Minneapolis, MN, August 5, 2007: Site of the I-35 bridge collapse

For those of us who came of age in the Sixties, the name Burt Bacharach will resonate, He wrote songs which brought huge careers for the likes of Dionne Warwick, Gene Pitney, Cilla Black and Dusty Springfield. His music topped the hit parade regularly and made the singers into stars. One of Bacharach’s biggest hits was “Trains and Boats and Planes.” The song’s lyrics describe the problems of conducting a love affair at long distance. Were the song to be given air time today, perhaps a different connotation would apply.

Infrastructure – those trains, boats and planes - is not a sexy topic. There is no jazz to it. Politicians distance themselves from it because it is not eye-catching, it is very costly, it does not have quick results and is more likely to lose votes than gain them. Yet the importance of infrastructure was brought home to me some years ago during an episode of The West Wing. CJ, the character who was the Press Secretary and, later, President Bartlet’s Chief of Staff, was weighing her options about her future career once Bartlet left office. A successful businessman turned philanthropist asked her to be the head of his new charitable foundation. “I’ll invest $10 billion,” CJ was told. “What would you do with it?” She replied, “I’d build roads, roads in Africa and other countries where food and fresh water is a scarcity. Roads will ensure that people can have access to food and fresh water in times of scarcity and drought. And it will enable people to make and grow things and have them transported for sale.”

Improving America’s infrastructure during the 20^th century was one of the important reasons for its economic dominance as the world’s largest and most productive industrial nation. Yes, there were other factors. Dominance resulted from a capitalist philosophy helped by huge investment. Personal freedom was an important factor as people exercised their rights of choice of goods to buy. Production for the home market was strong. Henry Ford made sure his workers’ wages were sufficient to enable them to buy a Model T.

However, arguably the most important factor was the investment in infrastructure. In the early 20^th century, America was far too large for goods to be transported and delivered long distance by road. Air freight was forty years in the future. So a good railway system became essential. There were all kinds of problems. Refrigerated rail cars were not reliable, so produce was at risk. Railway gauges would vary from state to state, so time was lost in transhipment. But the railway networks, all privately owned, criss-crossed the whole country. It was possible to ship goods from the west coast to the east coast and vice-versa.

Electrification helped. The redevelopment of the Tennessee Valley during the Depression brought electricity to seven states. However, after World War II, railways suffered from lack of investment as competition from air and road transport strengthened. Railways fell into disrepair and bankruptcy. The road system received a shot in the arm in the 1950s when the Eisenhower administration invested in a 48,000 mile interstate road building program. By the 1970s, transport competition kept prices in check because it was feasible and economic to transport goods by air. Railway freight became the poor relation.

In last week’s Sunday Times, Amanda Foreman wrote about the perilous state of America’s infrastructure. For many decades, this important element of the economy had been starved of investment and the results were there for all to see. Those of us who have enjoyed American road trips will know the poor state of repair of many interstate highways and state roads. What is staggering is the estimate by the American Society of Civil Engineers that one in nine bridges is structurally unsound. In 2007, the I-35 Bridge in Minneapolis collapsed without warning and with loss of life. Since then there have been six more major bridge incidents. In addition, the ASCE has warned that 32% of America’s roads are sub-standard. As for the railways, in Philadelphia last week an Amtrak train was derailed. The accident may have been caused by driver error but since 2010 there have been more than twenty serious railway incidents which cannot all be attributable to this cause.

The ASCE is clear that the lack of investment in American infrastructure is costing the country dear. It alleges that if Congress does not tackle the infrastructure deficit, over the next five years American exports will decrease by $28 billion, more than 850,000 jobs will be lost and GDP will drop by $900 billion. I cannot attest to the accuracy of these numbers but clearly there is a major problem here.

Three years ago, I took a road trip around the west coast of America. Driving through the San Joaquin Valley, I was reminded of the vast amount of produce grown in California. What shocked me was the manner of transportation. For hours, extremely large trucks filled to the brim with fruit and vegetables and belching out diesel, pounded the road out of the Valley, presumably headed for the interstates and the ports of California, Oregon and Washington State. There was no railroad in sight.

Governing is a very difficult business and investing in infrastructure is often unpopular. One only has to look to England and the debate about HST2, a program to build a new high-speed railway to improve links between London, Birmingham and the North. The debate has been characterised as one of speed and the need to have faster links but the real issue is capacity. Our existing railroads cannot carry more train traffic. For almost a decade, the politicians who will make the final decision on HST2 have procrastinated, as British infrastructure suffers. I suspect the position is the same in the States.

If a nation wants a thriving economy, it must have good, efficient and affordable systems in place for the transport of people and goods. Failure to do so leads to stagnation and defeat by competition. In the 20^th century, Americans demonstrated a ‘can-do’ attitude on transport but this seems to be no longer the case. Hopefully the determination of America’s commercial and industrial leaders to make improvements will take effect but any change will also require political will and leadership. It will be interesting to see if any of the 2016 Presidential and Congressional hopefuls have the vision, determination and the guts to get things done.