Taxpayer Rail Land Purchase

History can provide valuable lessons. At times it may even inform sensible policy. The effort by a coalition of local governments to purchase the railroad right-of-way between Ventura and Santa Clarita offers such an educational opportunity.

According to the Historical Atlas of the American West, the early Southern Pacific was well-operated, yet “engaged in practices which earned it the name of ‘octopus,’ and it was depicted as strangling the economic lifeblood of California.”

The exemplary individuals associated with the Southern Pacific have changed. Business, however, remains business as usual. Southern Pacific toxic spills endanger and disrupt lives of ordinary people. Cabooses and railmen were eliminated who would have detected a sparking axle dragging through Ventura County that resulted in one such memorable accident. Routes are closed off and begging communities are squeezed to pay for tracks.

These same rights-of-way were essentially given to the Southern Pacific and earned them high profits--indeed until they were recently closed. Pertinent questions remain: Why continue a public subsidy for Southern Pacific Transportation Co.’s private profit? Why not proceed with declaring eminent domain over the Santa Clara Valley tracks rather than allowing the squeeze on our communities to continue? This seems, perhaps naively, the direction for informed policy to travel.

KEITH GALLAGHER

Ventura