respond to discussion below?

In this week's reading and research, this topic reminds me of Oregon Trail, the computer game. It started with "covered wagons and stagecoaches" during the Pony Express era and then blossomed into railroads in the early to late 1800's (Longfellow, 2015, para, 3). The United States' first direct railroad stretched "13-miles" from Baltimore to Ohio in the early 1830's with over "9,000 miles" in business 20 years later (A Short History of U.S. Freight Railroads, n.d., pg. 1). Railways were a means of traveling to areas that were not yet constructed for raw materials, lumber, and farming products to get to the market. It was a huge win in the North during the Civil War era due to two things: the rail procedures were highly organized and the train and railway "car-building plants were in the North" (A Short History of U.S. Freight Railroads, n.d., pg. 1).

Historically the U.S. public policy toward freight transportation was born almost 200 years ago. Railways have continuously played an essential role in American history development. Regulation developed in the mid-1800's when hauler allegations of irrationally exponential rail rates, discounts, rate and service discrimination, and railway "pools led to agitation by farmers and merchants in the Granger territory for states laws to" govern railways (Kriebel & Baumel, 1979, pg. 1003). A bill passed in 10 states which prohibited long/short-haul discrimination and rail charges to be created by state government commissions or authoritarians.

In the late 1800's, the "Interstate Commerce Act" formed the "Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC)" that made railways the "first U.S. industry subject to comprehensive federal economic regulation" (A Short History of U.S. Freight Railroads, n.d., pg. 1). Fast forward 30 years later, the "Car Service Act" granted the Interstate Commerce Commission to create rational rail car service guidelines and rail car dangers. Then the "Transportation Act of 1920" granted the ICC to manage railway additions and desertions. Within a 10-year span, the "trucking industry became overcrowded with small uneconomic units" incapable to fulfill the "minimum standards of safety, service, or financial responsibility" (Kriebel, et al, 1979, pg. 1003). The growth of truck and barge rivalry led to several railway liquidation service neglect and suspended maintenance.

To combat this severe crisis, Congress had a couple options, either "nationalize the railroads at a continuing cost of untold billions of dollars or replace the excessive regulation of the past with more balanced regulatory framework" (A Short History of U.S. Freight Railroads, n.d., pg. 3). A sense of urgency was felt to regulate a new system that would enact railroad companies like Amtrak to function like other businesses regarding managing their resources and price rate for their services. Congress astutely chose the second option which passed as the "Staggers Rail Act of 1980" (A Short History of U.S. Freight Railroads, n.d., pg. 3). With rail companies having free reign to operate in a private sector compacity without government control and oversight is what has kept them from collapsing.