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'I'd like to suggest a fourth 'R'"

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'I'd like to suggest a fourth 'R'"

RAILWAYIST
11 May 2009 3:58 PM
  • Comments 2

"'Readin' and 'ritin' and 'rithmetic were about all that children learned in the days of the little red schoolhouse. Today. of course, we cover a lot more ground. And classroom projects on transportation form so important a part of our studies these days that this fourth 'R' of mine would stand for RAILROADS."

"Our young people have learned that the railroads are an essential partner in the business of living...because only the raliroads have the enormous carrying capacity required to transport most of the food the children eat, the clothes they wear, and the things they need and use every day. "

"Yes, 'R' for railroads means a real partnership---one which has been firmly interwoven into the whole pattern of our American life"

  • "The partnership of the American railroads with the American people reaches deep down into thousands of towns and villages all over the nation, for the railroads are a home-town partner in every community they serve. They employ local people, buy supplies locally, own local property and pay local taxes on it. These railroad taxes are the same kind as those you pay. They are not spent on railroad tracks or stations, but they help support local public services of all sorts, including public health, fire and police protection, highways, and public schools. Last year railroad taxes alone paid for the education of more than a million children throughout the United States."  (did you read that---the railroads subsidizing highways)!!!

Quoted: Association of AMERICAN RAILROADS Washington 6, D.C. "IN PARTNERSHIP WITH ALL AMERICA"  1946

The fourth "R" for RAILROADS could be re-introduced into multiple levels the US educational system including the mis-informed news and entertainment media. How about R-T-T for RAILWAY TRANSPORTATION TECHNOLOGY?,  R-C-T for RAILWAY COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY?, R-I-T for RAILWAY INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY?, R-M-A for RAILWAY MARKETING & ADVERTISING?, RAILWAY HISTORY?, RAILWAY SOCIAL STUDIES?, any more suggestions? --- anyone of you out there could contact your local schools and universities to suggest rail based education, suggest that your local media include more rail stories. The Detroit Free Press and Detroit News have been printing more transportation and railroad stories recently...

Comments
  • Larry Kaufman
    11 May 2009 7:20 PM

    Perhaps our railroads will take steps to restore their credibility with the American people.  Considering that railroads behaved abominably in their monopoly days, they became the first American industry to be regulated as a monopoly.  They suffered greatly for that, as we all know that government regulation darn near destroyed the railroad industry.  Still, too many people in the industry look upon the public as "the enemy."  This has got to stop.  All the cheerleading in the world, RAILWAYIST, isn't going to make a difference if the public doesn't care what happens to railroads.

  • James Swidergal
    12 May 2009 12:24 PM

    Yeah I agree with Kaufman, and in addition it seems as far as from a PR standpoint when I was running over the road,the vast number of americans that we'd pass would wave as we'd go by. Their attitude is we like the railroads, we teach our kids to wave howdy as we go down the pike, but railroads are ok only so long as they're not in my backyard attitude.