To Get Involved Click Here

Articles and Documents

Read About Public Ownership of Railroads

15 March 2023

Rank-and-File Rail Workers Are Calling for Public Ownership of the Railroads

Jacobin - Fed up with rail companies putting profits before workers and surrounding communities, the rank-and-file group Railroad Workers United is launching a campaign for railroad nationalization. We spoke with one of their leaders about the proposal.

13 March 2023

Bring the railroads under public ownership

Southern Workers Assembley - This [Public Rail Ownership] is a critical initiative that would greatly benefit rail workers, the mostly Black, brown, migrant communities that bear the brunt of toxic chemicals from rail yards, and workers and oppressed people as a whole.

10 March 2023

Is It Time for US Railroad Workers to Consider Railroad Nationalization

The Highball RWU - "Our jobs, our livelihoods, and our industry are all on the line. Can we trust hedge funds, stockholders, CEOs and Wall Street to best defend our interests? PSR might just be the tip of the iceberg. What might be next? "

7 March 2023

US Railroads Lag Behind the World in Railroad Electrification, and the Reason is Private Ownership

Brown Political Review - A study from the 1980s found that electrification had an ‘economic advantage’ over diesel, with a 19 percent pre-tax rate of return on electrifying 29,000 miles of US mainlines.

7 March 2023

Workers push public ownership for a safer, stronger rail system

Capital Times - If the derailment of a Norfolk Southern train carrying hazardous materials in East Palestine, Ohio, tells us anything, it is that the corporate CEOs, billionaire speculators and profit-hungry investors who control America’s transportation systems are not up to the job of running railroads

3 March 2023

Letter to the Editor: Freight trains: ‘Run rail for the public good’

The Seattle Times - The private owners of rail continually put our environment and communities at risk with their drive for profits.

28 February 2023

What you are NOT hearing about a solution for the East Palestine Rail Disaster and the Rail Industry

Daily Kos - Unless you follow rail industry news sources, are tuned into labor efforts, or progressive news links, odds are you haven't heard that there is a growing sentiment that the best long-term answer for what ails the rail industry is for the government to step in, because the railroads are too important to leave to the mercy of hedge funds.

23 February 2023

It's Time to Talk About Nationalizing America's Railroads

The Nation - "I’m angry when I look at these companies lay people off,” Brown said of the rail corporations, which have reaped enormous profits while undermining workers and lobbying against safety measures. “They never look out for their workers. They never look out for their communities. They look out for stock buybacks and dividends. "

22 February 2023

Rail Workers Warned Us Corporate Greed Is Dangerous. It's Time to Nationalize the Railroads

Bucks County Beacon - Railroad workers have offered a simple solution to this public threat: public ownership. Railroad Workers United, which brings together members from 12 rail unions, has called for an end to private corporate ownership of the U.S. rail system, as well as the integrated systems in Mexico and Canada.

17 February 2023

Amid Ohio Nightmare, Rail Worker Alliance Urges All of Labor to Back Railroad Nationalization

Common Dreams - "Railroads are, like utilities, 'natural monopolies,'" UE said. "The consolidation of the Class 1 railroads in the U.S. into five massive companies over the past several decades has made it clear that there is no 'free market' in rail transportation."