by Franklin Gowen
Today marks the 40th anniversary of the Penn Central's bankruptcy declaration.
Not only was its own image ruined once the investing, riding and shipping public knew how bad of an operation PC really was, but the financial community and the government finally had the facts shoved in their faces, too. Everybody already knew that the New Haven, great though it once was, had already become borderline-hopeless. The recently merged-away heritage of the New York Central and Pennsylvania Railroads was now also left in tatters. People of that era wondered what the heck those two titans had really been doing in the years just prior to the merger.
The answer was now obvious: dying by inches.
It's commonly held as a truism that without the Penn Central bankruptcy, there would have been less of an impetus for the Federal government to create Amtrak and, later, Conrail. Without those two successors, the national railroad scene would have turned out quite differently. Much as the commercial redevelopment plan which caused the destruction of PRR's magnificent Penn Station building in NY was the spur needed to get the modern historical preservation movement going (and which also saved NYC's Grand Central Terminal from the same fate), the swift decline and fall of the Penn Central was also viewed in hindsight as a necessary evil for spotlighting the fundamentally dysfunctional nature of railroading in general by 1970; in particular, rr'ing in the Northeastern US.
If industry deregulation, in the form of the Staggers Act of 1980, could have come by (for example) 1960, the necessity for the Penn Central merger might have been lessened or even eliminated. Many ahistorical "what if?"s are possible here. Alas, we had to do things "the hard way".
Not only was its own image ruined once the investing, riding and shipping public knew how bad of an operation PC really was, but the financial community and the government finally had the facts shoved in their faces, too. Everybody already knew that the New Haven, great though it once was, had already become borderline-hopeless. The recently merged-away heritage of the New York Central and Pennsylvania Railroads was now also left in tatters. People of that era wondered what the heck those two titans had really been doing in the years just prior to the merger.
The answer was now obvious: dying by inches.
It's commonly held as a truism that without the Penn Central bankruptcy, there would have been less of an impetus for the Federal government to create Amtrak and, later, Conrail. Without those two successors, the national railroad scene would have turned out quite differently. Much as the commercial redevelopment plan which caused the destruction of PRR's magnificent Penn Station building in NY was the spur needed to get the modern historical preservation movement going (and which also saved NYC's Grand Central Terminal from the same fate), the swift decline and fall of the Penn Central was also viewed in hindsight as a necessary evil for spotlighting the fundamentally dysfunctional nature of railroading in general by 1970; in particular, rr'ing in the Northeastern US.
If industry deregulation, in the form of the Staggers Act of 1980, could have come by (for example) 1960, the necessity for the Penn Central merger might have been lessened or even eliminated. Many ahistorical "what if?"s are possible here. Alas, we had to do things "the hard way".
Franklin Gowen • • • • READING COMPANY forum moderator
Click here for "America's Largest Anthracite Hauler"!
In 2024, the late, great RDG overlaps with RBM&N, SEPTA, NS, CSX, and several shortlines - that's life . . .
Click here for "America's Largest Anthracite Hauler"!
In 2024, the late, great RDG overlaps with RBM&N, SEPTA, NS, CSX, and several shortlines - that's life . . .