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The Railway Safety Act would derail progress one provision at a time
On February 3, 2023, a Norfolk Southern freight train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio. The derailment spilled hazardous chemicals and prompted a massive, controlled burn that sent plumes…
Blog
Full steam ahead: How 50 years of deregulation revitalized US freight rail
This week marks the 50th anniversary of the Railroad Revitalization and Regulatory Reform Act of 1976, better known as the 4R Act. For much…
News Release
Coalition urges Congress to reject freight rail regulation in transportation bill
The Competitive Enterprise Institute today sent a coalition letter to transportation committee chairs in Congress opposing the idea of imposing, as part of must-pass surface…
Search Posts
Blog
Administration’s GROW AMERICA Act 2.0 Mixes Bad with Good
Today, Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx unveiled the administration’s latest surface transportation reauthorization proposal. Like the previous White House bill, the latest iteration of the…
The Washington Post
Streetcar Fatigue
In the Washington Post, CEI's Marc Scribner discusses "streetcar fatigue" and the quagmire surrounding Washington, D.C.'s H Street Streetcar project: Marc Scribner,…
Blog
Benning Road: The Last Refuge of Streetcar Apologists
Washington City Paper’s Housing Complex blogger Aaron Wiener has an unintentionally hilarious article on the slow-motion implosion of the D.C. Streetcar. But before I get to Wiener’s…
Blog
How Not to Fix, and Fix, Federal Surface Transportation Policy
A lot of misinformation and scaremongering swells around transportation infrastructure policy in Washington. We are told our highway network is on the verge of collapse…
Blog
Transportation Roundup: Obama Budget, DOT 2045, and Sad Transcontinental Railroad Nostalgia
The President’s FY 2016 Budget On Monday, the White House released its DOA FY 2016 budget. Like President Obama’s previous budgets, this one has no…
Blog
Premature Capitulation?
Over the decades I’ve spent in this Heart of Darkness (a.k.a., the bowels of American politics), I’ve learned two lessons that have encouraged the steady…
Politico
A streetcar not desired?
Marc Scribner is cited in Politico: Besides costs, critics point to other shortcomings in the projects. For example, they question whether streetcar…
Blog
United Streetcar: The Solyndra of Transportation
Over the weekend, The Washington Post published a fascinating article about the rise and fall of United Streetcar, an Oregon-based manufacturer that owes its very existence to the…
Roll Call
Friday Q & A: Marc Scribner of the Competitive Enterprise Institute
Part 1, Part 2 Analyst Marc Scribner at the Competitive Enterprise Institute examines transportation policy from a staunchly pro-market standpoint. Here are excerpts…
Blog
Voters Reject Three Rail Transit Boondoggles
Yesterday, voters across the country had the opportunity to vote on a number of transportation ballot measures. Three of these involved spending for new rail…
Blog
STB Reauthorization Bill Threatens Rail Investment
The U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation has scheduled a markup for tomorrow afternoon of the Surface Transportation Board (STB) Reauthorization Act (S.2777). If…
Blog
Michael Grunwald’s High-Speed Rail Fantasies
Perhaps the one thing Time magazine's Michael Grunwald loves more than drone assassinations of American citizens and dissident journalists is heavily subsidized passenger rail. This is not the…
Study
Bait and Reciprocal Switch
Full Document Available in PDF America’s freight railroad industry is one of the greatest success stories of economic liberalization. After decades of…
News Release
Special Interest Lobby Threatens Freight Rail Deregulation
WASHINGTON, March 24 – A new effort by special interest groups threatens much-needed freight-rail investment, according to a new…
Mass Live
Increased Boston-To-Springfield Passenger Rail Service May One Day Become A Reality
Marc Scribner, a research fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, thinks investment by the state on a primarily private rail line is unnecessary because private…
Human Events
Amtrak – Another Government-Run Disaster
I am the casualty of a model train collector gone wild. Sorry, Dad, but it’s true. Many a Christmas morning, my brother and I would…
The American Spectator
BART’s Bogus Ride
It was the 1970s and Britain was the “sick man of Europe.” Labor unions had toppled one Conservative government and were bullying the existing Labour…
The American Spectator
5 questions on high-speed rail and its U.S. future
According to a June report from the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a libertarian think tank, the Federal Railroad Administration “has strict crash safety regulation for passenger…
The American Spectator
Government regs hurt passenger rail
That’s the message of this paper from the Competitive Enterprise Institute. The writers point out the American safety regulators require passenger rail cars to…
The American Spectator
A Recipe for More Coastal Republicans
Josh Barro points us to a new report from David Edmondson and Marc Scribner on one of my favorite subjects — the fact that FRA…
Study
Reducing Passenger Train Procurement Costs
Full Document Available in PDF Interest in passenger rail around the United States has increased in recent years. With their ability to…
News Release
Reducing the Costs of Passenger Rail
WASHINGTON, D.C., June 5, 2013 – With passenger rail funding expiring in less than four months, Congress is poised to scrutinize core features of the…
Journal of Commerce
Mandatory Switching Proposal for Class I Railroads Draws Fire
“NITL and supporters of its flawed proposal ignore the underlying economics of network industries and seek to require the board to make arbitrary and capricious…
Comment
Reply Comments before the STB in EP 711
Full Document Available in PDF On behalf of the Competitive Enterprise…
National Review
The Surge in Freight Rail Investment
Marc Scribner of the regulation-averse Competitive Enterprise Institute has more recently argued that it is unlikely that cost-based rate ceiling would prove beneficial, as…
Study
Slow Train Coming?
After a century of severe regulation nearly brought the United States railroad industry to ruin, policy makers in the 1970s began a process that ultimately…
News Release
Railroad Industry Will Suffer Under Proposed Rate Regulations
WASHINGTON, D.C., March 12, 2013 – A new study from the Competitive Enterprise Institute strongly warns against recent efforts to re-regulate the railroad…
Watchdog
Lawmakers bypass Medicaid on way to tax-laden transportation bill
“Gov. McDonnell is fast proving himself to be the Charlie Crist of the Mid-Atlantic,” Competitive Enterprise Institute transportation fellow Marc Scribner said in a disparaging…
Heartland Institute
Enviro Groups Rally Against Fast-Tracking California High-Speed Rail
From Kenneth Artz's article on Heartlander Digital Magazine: Marc Scribner, the land-use and transportation policy analyst for the Competitive Enterprise Institute, agrees, saying,…
Forbes
California Cities Go Bankrupt, But Bullet Train Barrels On
If we didn’t have California as a case study of fiscal insanity, someone would have to invent it. Nowhere else better illustrates what happens when…
Letters
CEI Coalition Letter to Surface Transportation Reauthorization Conferees Supporting the Broun Motion to Instruct
Full Document Available in PDF Dear Member of…
Letters
Coalition Letter to Surface Transportation Bill Conferees
Full Document Available in PDF CEI signed a coalition letter to House…
Forbes
As Strike Deadline Looms for Unionized Rail Workers, Congress Prepares to Intervene
Railroad traffic could grind to a halt as early as next week, as union rail workers on the nation’s freight railroads decide whether to walk…
DC Velocity
STB Decision Delaying Action on Rail Switching Leaves Shipper Group Hot Under Collar
DC Velocity
Freedom to Move: Interview with Marc Scribner
One News Now
What China’s rail recall should tell U.S.
Comment
CEI Replies to the National Industrial Transportation League’s Petition for Rulemaking to Adopt Revised Competitive Switching Rules
Full Document Available in PDF On behalf of…
Florida Political Press
Ron Rushing, Citizen Candidate For U.S. Senate Opposes Sun Rail Project
Washington Examiner
NYT: Tea Party vs. John Mica’s Myopic Monorail to Nowhere
One News Now
Information Requested in High-Speed Rail Project
News Release
Gov’t Communications on “Train to Nowhere” Probed by CEI’s FOIA of Department of Transportation
Washington, DC, June 21, 2011 – Americans deserve to know what government officials really think about the “train to nowhere” supported by the Obama administration…
Legal Brief
CEI’s FOIA Request to Department of Transportation Regarding the Central Valley High-Speed Rail Corridor
Full Document Available as PDF The attached Freedom of Information Act request letters…
Comment
CEI Replies to Consumers United for Rail Equity Before the Surface Transportation Board
Full Document Available as a PDF On behalf…
One News Now
Victory Over Rail Funding may be Short-Lived
News Release
Re-regulating the Railroad Industry Would Harm Railroads, Shippers, and Consumers
Washington, D.C., April 13, 2011 — Yesterday, the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) submitted a second comment letter in response to the Surface Transportation…
Comment
CEI Submits Supplemental Comments on Railroad Competition Before the Surface Transportation Board
Full Document Available in PDF On behalf of the…
Comment
CEI Submits Comments on Railroad Competition Before the Surface Transportation Board
Full Document Available in PDF On behalf of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI),…
One News Now
Marc Scribner on Wasteful Transit Policy
CEI Land-use and Transportation Policy Analyst Marc Scribner says rail transit policy is all about people’s love for trains.
Study
The Case for Reform of the Railway Labor Act
End Unionization through Regulation and Allow Workers to Decertify Unions…
One News Now
Expert: High-speed rail quota overly ambitious
Study
Resist New Burdens on the Transportation Sector
Liberate to Stimulate Index The transportation industries—airline, railroad, shipping, and trucking—are networks involving both a flow and a grid. The flow element…
Study
Put Mobility First in Surface Transportation
Liberate to Stimulate Index Surface transportation policy has become less rational and more ideological in recent decades. Environmentalists, urban planners, and their…
Atlantic Yards Report
Atlantic Yards cited in Competitive Enterprise Institute report as example of bad public-private partnerships
Atlantic Yards Report
Ohio, Wisconsin Reject High-Speed Rail Funds
Legal Brief
Antitrust Amicus Curiae Brief Supporting CEI’s Challenge to the 1998 Tobacco Settlement
Full Document Avalible in PDF On December 10, 2010, five law professors filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in…
One News Now
States backing out of railroad projects
News Release
Think Tank Applauds Fiscal Responsibility in Wisconsin and Ohio
Washington, D.C., December 9, 2010 – Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced today that the Obama administration was pulling $1.195 billion in American Recovery and…
Journal Sentinel
Stop pretending that it’s high-speed rail
On Nov. 2, voters across Wisconsin made their voices clear on government-run passenger rail: Don't build it. Voters in Dane, Kenosha and Racine counties soundly…
NCPA
High-Speed-Train Wreck
The National Center for Policy Analysis discusses revamped rail systems with Iain Murray and Marc Scribner. The Obama administration and high-speed rail proponents…
Trib Live
High-speed train wreck
Appeared in: The Bellingham Herald, Lexington Herald-Leader, Athens Banner-Herald, The Sacramento Bee, Great Falls Tribune, Fort Worth…
Washington Examiner
We’ve Been LaHood-Winked on Transportation Mobility Grants that Push Big Green’s Anti-Car Agenda
On Wednesday, President Obama’s Transportation Secretary, Ray LaHood, announced the grant recipients of his department’s $600 million Transportation Investments Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER II)…
Progressive Railroading
USDOT doles out TIGER II grants for 75 transportation projects
E&E News
Free-market group decries DOT’s ‘sloppy social engineering’
Newsletter
Ethanol, Amtrak and Auto Insurance
New global warming legislation contains subsidies for ethanol production. Amtrak, which loses money annually, is now embroiled in legal troubles. State governments take an increasingly…
E&E News
Time to set Amtrak free
For almost 40 years, Amtrak has been a burden on American taxpayers. It has a record of inefficiency, incompetence and overspending. Now we can…
Newsletter
Union Bus Drivers, Fannie Mae Reform and Transportation Partnerships
In New York, bus drivers can take months of paid leave to recuperate from being spit on by passengers. The Obama…
Newsletter
EPA’s Carbon Regulations, Internet Gambling and Reviving Rail
The Senate prepares to vote on Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s resolution to restrict the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating carbon emissions. The House’s Ways and Means…
Newsletter
Greenhouse Gas Regulation, High-Speed Rail and Waiting on Crist in Florida
The 2006 Supreme Court verdict in Massachusetts v. EPA is cited as one of retiring Justice John Paul Stevens’ most influential. President Obama pushes for…
Opposing Views
What’s With Obama and His Obsession With Trains?
In 2000, Florida voters approved a constitutional amendment (the “Monorail Initiative“) authorizing the creation of a high-speed intercity rail network. However, as the economy slowed…
Washington Times
Tolls, More Freeways Would Improve Transport (Letter to the Editor)
The editorial "Freeways are the solution to congestion" (Comment & Analysis, April 12) got it half-right. Widening roads to support more cars is far less…
Newsletter
Child Support Disputes, NFL Claims “Who Dat?” and Anti-terrorism Police Drills
Virginia legislators vote down a bill which would have forced non-custodial parents to pay child support for their children through college.
Washington Times
Letter to the Editor: TSA Doesn’t Need Any More Obstacles
The Examiner was right to oppose unionizing the Transportation Security Administration, which would harm airline security and reduce its effectiveness. But the TSA is…
Washington Times
U.S. Government Undermining Air and Rail Security
An alleged terrorist from Nigeria has been charged with plotting to blow up an airliner. He carried explosives onto a plane and set…
Newsletter
Obama at the UN, the Healthcare Tax and the Costs of Cap and Trade
President Obama call for a “new era of global engagement” in addressing climate change and other issues. Economists debate the financial impact that a healthcare…
Washington Times
9/11 Ignored-Obama Undermines Airline and Train Security
In the aftermath of 9/11, Congress foolishly shifted airline security screening to the inept Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which has failed to detect explosive…
Study
The Railroad Competition and Service Improvement Act
Why Government-Enforced “Competition” Will Not Work.
Newsletter
Greenhouse Gases, Broadband Speeds and the Future of Transit
California officials ignore the high costs of implementing the state’s greenhouse gas reduction plan. Comcast implements upgrades for broadband customers that will double download speeds…
Op-Eds
European Railroads Not a Model for U.S. April 23
RAIL Solution’s David Foster (Letters, April 21) claims Europe’s transport system is increasingly “beyond petroleum” because Europe uses high gas taxes not only to discourage…
Washington Times
Grantor’s Tax Should Be Repealed, Too
Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine now wants to repeal the abusive-driver fees contained in Virginia’s 2007 transportation law, even though he signed that law and…
Study
Privatizing Rail, Avoiding the Pitfalls Lessons from the British Experience, by Iain Murray
Full Document Available in PDF The U.S. national…
Washington Times
Letter to the Editor, The Washington Post
Railroad deregulation provides a model for liberalizing all network industries. Network industries such as railroads, electricity and telecommunication have two elements: the flows (trains,…
Study
Will New Regulation Derail the Railroads?
Full Document Available in PDF Despite the success of railroad…
Comment
Reforming the Endangered Species Act: The Property Rights Perspective
Full Document Available in PDF Thank you, Mr.