riddle@ut-sally.UUCP (Prentiss Riddle) (08/09/84)
All I know is that the deregulation of intercity bus companies has
caused tremendous headaches both for the companies themselves and for
consumers. Here in Texas, there were only two large bus lines prior to
deregulation, Greyhound and Trailways, plus a few minor regional
lines. They were required to keep their fares reasonably uniform and
to serve not only the major city-to-city routes (where they made most
of their money) but also less lucrative routes as well. I wouldn't be
surprised if they gouged the consumers bit here and there, but at least
the service was tolerable.
After deregulation a lot of little wildcat companies started horning in
on the profitable routes where they could undercut the big companies,
since they didn't have low-paying rural routes to worry about. This
left the big companies in a very difficult financial situation, and
they did exactly what you would expect them to -- started cutting
prices on the major routes a bit to compete with the small companies,
cutting service on low-profit routes, and cutting back on the wages and
benefits they paid their employees. By all accounts I've heard, this
is what caused the Greyhound strikes of recent years -- Greyhound is no
longer the rewarding place to work that it once was.
Some of you may respond to this by saying, "Tough shit -- why should I
care about the fate of bus service to Podunk Flats or Greyhound's pay
scale? My ticket from Dallas to Houston is even cheaper, so what am I
gonna worry about?" I guess it has to do with your priorities. To me,
competition is a means, not an end. The end is (1) good bus service
for the people who need it -- and that includes Podunk Flats at least
as much as Dallas, which has more alternative means of transportation
-- and (2) fair treatment of the workers who provide the service. My
suspicion is that in transportation, as in communications, the most
equitable and most efficient way to run the system is closer to a
public utility than the free market.
[Somebody who knows more about it should correct me if I'm wrong, but
didn't the same thing I just described happen to the airline industry
after deregulation, too, only more so?]
--- Prentiss Riddle ("Aprendiz de todo, maestro de nada.")
--- {ihnp4,harvard,seismo,gatech,ctvax}!ut-sally!riddle