We Badly Need Better Railroads

Fixing rail is essential for our economy and security. Now, we just need to do it.

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BATTLE CREEK, MI – Robert Walsh, a man who is fighting hard to improve Michigan’s railroads, has had a long and colorful career. He’s lived in Saudi Arabia and set up telecommunications facilities in the Middle East for the U.S. Army and Aramco.

He served with the legendary 101^st Airborne in Vietnam, and is a dedicated ham radio operator with contacts worldwide. These days, he’s best known as an attorney willing to take on the VA, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, on behalf of his fellow Vietnam vets.

But he is utterly passionate about train travel, and thinks Michigan is making a crucial mistake by not investing heavily in rail. “Michigan has failed to view rail as a strategic asset,” he said.

“Climate change is an existential threat to our civilization,” he told me, adding that “the rail system is our only available resource to use in significantly reducing carbon sector emissions.”

Not only that, “rail is cheaper to build than highways by a factor of at least 10. And once built, (the system) requires very little maintenance in comparison to highways,” he said, adding wryly that you usually don’t need a stockpile of snow plows, or mountains of salt, to service railroad tracks.

While Walsh is far from alone in demanding a renaissance of rail, unlike many, he has hands-on experience in the field. He worked for the old Grand Trunk Western Railroad (now part of Canadian National, or CN) from 1969 till 1980.

Except, that is, for when “Nixon invited me to visit Southeast Asia for two years,” meaning when he was drafted and sent to Vietnam. He worked in telecommunications, meaning he did everything from designing complex communications systems to pulling copper telegraph wire out of the snow after an ice storm.

He came to love the railroad, even as he saw major corporations and the U.S. government allow it to deteriorate, convinced it was a relic of the past. America had 254,000 miles of track in 1916. That had dwindled by 2020 to a mere 93.150 miles, he said.

Bob Walsh is a man who does his homework. By 1925, he noted, “the United States had the finest freight and passenger rail system in the world,” he noted. “We needed it.”

He thinks we need it even more today. That’s because of the reality of climate change, for one thing. “Freight and passengers are moved by rail much more safely and efficiently than by road, and at zero or near zero carbon pollution per ton.”

Walsh thinks it’s clear what we need to do. He gets exasperated every time he sees a story proposing another study as to the possibility of building a new railroad from Ann Arbor to Traverse City. “That’s the transportation planning equivalent of going to an auto parts store and asking for a dozen eggs.”

Instead, he thinks there are existing routes that should be repaired and connected, starting from Pontiac.

“You do not have to reinvent the wheel to do this,” he told me. We’ve had studies; at this point, “this is not a study issue but a get off your (behind) and do issue.”

And while it’s true that riding a train is much safer and more relaxing and environmentally friendly than driving a car, he thinks it’s also an issue of national security, one that Michigan, not the federal government, needs to step up and take responsibility for.

“Michigan has failed to view rail as a strategic asset,
he said. Strategic, and economic. “Michigan has only three intermodal rail terminals. Ohio has 12,” he said.

He is now in the process of writing a detailed report to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. “What should Michigan do? First, the governor needs to commission a 50-year transportation study,” he said, similar to one California has and updates every five years.

“In a world of term limits and shifting political fortunes, it serves as the institutional memory for state and local governments,” he said. After that, he thinks the state needs to work to bring all the tracks in the state up to the federal standard, so they could roll at 80 miles an hour for passenger service, and 60 miles for freight.

Finally, “Michigan needs to take responsibility for capital improvement to a rail network “that has been undervalued and neglected.” That also means restoring commuter rail service to metro Detroit. “Restored service should also include Detroit to Toledo and Detroit to Port Huron.” Will that cost a lot of money?

Certainly --but far less per mile than rebuilding automobile highways. The bottom line, he said, is that Michigan need a realistic master plan for transportation that cuts down on pollution and makes the state more economically competitive.

That, Bob Walsh believes, means much better rail service. Looking at the statistics, it’s hard to disagree.

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(A version of this column appeared in the Toledo Blade)

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