off track?

I have a couple of quibbles with your June cover story ("track to the future," June 2006, page 31). The two people quoted with criticisms of railroad service both are parties at interest. Eskew and Zollars, as customers, obviously would like to see the railroads improve their service. Perhaps a comment from someone without an axe to grind? And, looking beyond the superficial, perhaps an argument could be made that it was government policy that favored the trucking industry for decades that contributed to a current lack of capacity on the part of the railroads. That may be more than you wanted to present in your otherwise good piece on Gil [Carmichael] and his ideas.

Larry Kaufman

Editor's note: Kaufman serves on the Intermodal Transportation Institute's board and comments regularly on transportation issues in The Journal of Commerce and Argus Rail Business.