Reconnect America

Solutionary Rail
  • 4.8 (22)
  • SOCIETY & CULTURE
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

Reconnect America is the new podcast from Solutionary Rail that presents a creative yet common sense vision for U.S. railroads. It weaves together the genius of community and technical experts, workers and policymakers, advocates and scholars. Reconnect America reflects a decade of research, writing, and advocacy aimed at illuminating the ways in which the U.S. rail system can be harnessed to better service public interests and to address 21st century problems. Reconnect America is hosted by Bill Moyer, co-author of the book Solutionary Rail: A People-powered Campaign to Electrify America’s Railroads and Open Corridors to a Clean Energy Future. Please help us keep the podcast ads-free and without paywalls by making a tax-deductible donation at SolutionaryRail.org. solutionaryrail.substack.com

  1. Interview: Congress Must Act to Protect Rail Shippers from Wall Street Greed (w/ Ann Warner)

    12/28/2025

    Interview: Congress Must Act to Protect Rail Shippers from Wall Street Greed (w/ Ann Warner)

    Though the railroad industry was deregulated in 1980, the public was always supposed to retain access to rail service that it could rely upon at a competitive price. That promise has been broken, and Wall Street is only partially to blame. A lack of clarity and specificity in the statutes that authorize the Surface Transportation Board (STB) to regulate U.S. railroads has also prevented this agency from exercising the authority it is meant to have. That is why a growing base of support is coalescing around the bipartisan Reliable Rail Service Act. Ann Warner, the guest of today’s episode, is one of the figures at the forefront of this coalition. She serves as managing partner at Ann Warner LLC and spokesperson for the Freight Rail Customer Alliance (FRCA), an “alliance of freight rail shippers impacted by continued unrestrained freight rail market dominance over rail-dependent shippers.” Ann’s legal expertise and her work at the FRCA make this episode a perfect follow-up to our fascinating conversation earlier this month with FRCA President Emily Regis. Whereas Emily focused more on the concrete ways in which Class I railroads take advantage of their customers—who often have no other transportation options—Ann helps us understand the legal structures that allow these abuses to continue. In particular, Ann illuminates why the Reliable Rail Service Act is necessary to right these wrongs and begin to put U.S. railroads back in service of public interests rather than Wall Street greed. Reconnect America is hosted by Bill Moyer, co-author of the book Solutionary Rail: A People-powered Campaign to Electrify America’s Railroads and Open Corridors to a Clean Energy Future. Check out the essays and supplemental posts that complement this podcast HERE. Learn more, get involved and pitch in to support the work of Solutionary Rail at SolutionaryRail.org. Keep the podcast ads-free and without paywalls by making a tax-deductible donation HERE. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit solutionaryrail.substack.com

    51 min

  2. 12/13/2025

    Interview: Captive Shippers and Their Fight for Reasonable and Reliable Rail Service (w/ Emily Regis)

    We recently released Episode Four of our main Reconnect America series. It explores in depth the story of the unique U.S. experiment in private ownership of the critical national infrastructure that railroads constitute, and the concessions we have made over the course of a century and a half to sustain that system. If you haven’t listened to it yet, we highly recommend you check it out. As we prepare to continue the story into the present day with Episode Five, we are exploring the experiences of shippers who depend on railroads to move their products, by speaking with some of the folks who represent these businesses in negotiations with railroads and before the Surface Transportation Board (STB). Emily Regis is one of these people. Emily is president of the Freight Rail Customer Alliance, an “alliance of freight rail shippers impacted by continued unrestrained freight rail market dominance over rail-dependent shippers.” Emily is also Fuel Resource Administrator for the Arizona Electric Power Cooperative and President of the National Coal Transportation Association. Now, those familiar with Solutionary Rail will probably know that much of our work has been focused on facilitating a transition away from fossil fuels. So you might be wondering: why are we talking with someone who works on behalf of coal producers and their customers? For one thing, as we highlighted in Episodes Two and Four of our main series, a large part of the reason why the U.S. was once able to balance the public purpose of rail transport with the need of shareholders to earn a profit is because of the principle of common carriage. Railroads once had an obligation to provide reasonable service upon reasonable request to every shipper along their lines. It was only once they were allowed to discriminate, de-market, and turn business away that the system ceased to serve the public. Coal shippers have no other option than to move their product by rail, and so they—alongside shippers of a few other rail-dependent commodities—are especially vulnerable to the railroads’ ongoing abuse of their market power. But there is another reason why having this kind of conversation is so crucial to the Reconnect America project. One of the central pillars of the vision we’re developing here is the idea that when it comes to rail transport, fighting for the public interest is a cause that transcends partisan politics. It is not that we don’t have disagreements. But if we cannot talk with people that have different perspectives on some things, then we will never learn enough about them to find out what we have in common. As you will hear in this conversation—which took place in early October, between Emily and Solutionary Rail Director and Reconnect America Host Bill Moyer—we do have a lot in common. And we also have a ton to learn from people like Emily. When we advocate for a rail system that better serves communities, rail customers are one of the key intermediaries in that relationship. It is their needs that have to be amplified and addressed. The picture that Emily paints in this conversation is one of a rail system dominated by a business model that benefits only the railroads and their shareholders, at the expense of customers. It is a system that has seen cuts to service, a weaponization of surcharges, a suppression of complaints against the railroads for fear of retaliation, and a process to address these complaints that is impossibly bureaucratic and resource-consuming—and not all that helpful even when it succeeds. We discussed the dangers of the pending merger between Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern, for shippers that would be left captive to the monopoly power of a single railroad to move their freight. And we considered possible ways to re-envision how we do rail transport in this country. Reconnect America is hosted by Bill Moyer, co-author of the book Solutionary Rail: A People-powered Campaign to Electrify America’s Railroads and Open Corridors to a Clean Energy Future. Check out the essays and supplemental posts that complement this podcast HERE. Learn more, get involved and pitch in to support the work of Solutionary Rail at SolutionaryRail.org. Keep the podcast ads-free and without paywalls by making a tax-deductible donation HERE. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit solutionaryrail.substack.com

    1h 14m

  3. 11/27/2025

    Episode 4. Private Railroads for Public Purpose: Battles, Misadventures, and Extraordinary Measures (Part 1)

    Rail systems around the world are mostly owned and operated by the public. But the U.S. has only ever flirted with public ownership, and mostly in moments where this seemed like the only way to preserve a functional railroad system. Instead, for almost a century, we pursued a model of regulating corporate railroads to fulfill their public purpose while sustaining the revenue needed to keep them afloat. Meeting both of these objectives proved to be a balancing act which took decades to achieve, by which time it was already coming undone, thanks to massive public investments in competing modes of transportation. While it lasted, however, this system fueled the rise of what was, at the time, the largest middle class ever known. In Episodes 2 and 3, we focused on how the public responded to the partial collapse of this system in 1970 by creating Amtrak, a publicly-owned passenger railroad which relieved railroad corporations of their costly obligation to move people. We also discussed how Amtrak was nonetheless tasked with making a profit on this money-losing service, forcing it to eviscerate the nation’s passenger rail system in pursuit of that goal. In this episode, we retrace this history from the freight rail side of things, showing how our refusal to take full public responsibility for this critical infrastructure, even when circumstances seemed to cry out for it, led us on a wild goose chase in search of another path to stability. That chase carried us through two industry-wide death spirals, two merger waves, two temporary nationalizations, and a record-shattering bankruptcy, until legislators finally decided to change the paradigm—not by taking on the cost of providing the service, but rather by sacrificing service and giving free rein to Wall Street greed, all in the name of economic efficiency. Reconnect America is hosted by Bill Moyer, co-author of the book Solutionary Rail: A People-powered Campaign to Electrify America’s Railroads and Open Corridors to a Clean Energy Future. Check out the essays and supplemental posts that complement this podcast HERE. Learn more, get involved and pitch in to support the work of Solutionary Rail at SolutionaryRail.org. Keep the podcast ads-free and without paywalls by making a tax-deductible donation HERE. Recommended: Phillip Longman’s October 2024 article arguing that fixing our freight rail system is a prerequisite to re-industrializing the U.S., “Train Drain: How deregulation and private equity have gutted the U.S. freight rail system—and with it, the promise of America’s industrial renewal” Co-written and produced by Bill Moyer and Sasha Elenko. Engineering by August Moore and Tom Stiles. Musical theme by Ken Jacobsen and additional music by Ota Prota. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit solutionaryrail.substack.com

    1h 2m

  4. 09/20/2025

    Interview: U.S. Railroads' Endgame Moment (w/ Byron Porter)

    Wow, we interact with a lot of activists and advocates. What’s fascinating about this conversation is that amongst all of our guests thus far—Byron Porter is uniquely industry-adjacent. He brings together history, regulatory knowledge, and experience as a rail shipper and equipment provider for the railroad industry. You are gonna learn a ton from this incredible conversation—and that knowledge is gonna be very useful in the coming Endgame fight over the biggest rail merger in history. We recorded this prior to the illegal firing of Robert Primus, so that won’t come up. The limits of a regulatory regime ill-prepared to counter the political influence that Union Pacific and the Wall Street profiteers wield is even more apparent today than when we recorded this. The Wall Street profiteers are getting ready to stuff their pockets with winnings that could cost the country its last chance to put U.S. railroads back on track. Despite not being an activist, Byron is calling for a regulatory and business model revolution, not an evolution. And whether his or some other version of that future wins out—or whether this disastrous merger gets a mere wink and a nod—depends on all of us. What we all do next matters. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did. Forward Together! -Bill Moyer (host)Reconnect AmericaSolutionary Rail Recommended pieces from Byron’s excellent Substack, The Pacific: * “UP Triggers the Endgame” * “We Need a New Staggers Act” * “Paper Barriers and Feudal Warlords” Reconnect America is hosted by Bill Moyer, co-author of the book Solutionary Rail: A People-powered Campaign to Electrify America’s Railroads and Open Corridors to a Clean Energy Future. Check out the essays and supplemental posts that complement this podcast HERE. Learn more, get involved and pitch in to support the work of Solutionary Rail at SolutionaryRail.org. Keep the podcast ads-free and without paywalls by making a tax-deductible donation HERE. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit solutionaryrail.substack.com

    51 min

  5. 09/11/2025

    Interview: Why Railroad Workers Are Fighting the Proposed UP-NS Merger (w/ Ron Kaminkow)

    In the coming year or so, the Surface Transportation Board will determine whether to approve or block Union Pacific’s $85-billion acquisition of Norfolk Southern. This signals an attempt by Wall Street to squeeze yet more from this critical infrastructure in order to maximize returns for shareholders. In 2023, Surface Transportation Board (STB) member Robert Primus was the sole board member to vote against the merger of Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern to form Canadian Pacific Kansas City. President Trump’s recent illegal firing of board member Primus further weakens the STB and corrupts its adjudicatory mandate. The absence of a key critical voice from the Board raises the pressure on concerned workers, shippers, competing railroads, and the public to make their voices heard. Unless Primus is reinstated, the approval of this Wall Street railroad merger is a near done deal. Railroad workers, in particular, find themselves in a difficult situation. Being divided into several different unions, workers and their union leaders are often forced to choose between accepting concessions for their own particular craft and holding out in the name of industry-wide solidarity. A UP-NS merger involves even higher stakes, as it could very well result in significant cuts to the workforce resulting from the elimination of redundancies between the newly-combined railroads. To better understand the dilemmas faced by workers in the fight ahead, and to help us pick apart the smokescreens that UP and NS are promulgating in an effort to charm workers into submission, we got in touch with Ron Kaminkow. Ron is a longtime ally and collaborator of Solutionary Rail’s. He is also a co-founder, former general secretary, and current trustee of Railroad Workers United (RWU), a cross-union caucus of railroad workers that aims to build industry-wide solidarity to more effectively stand up to Wall Street’s railroads. Last month, RWU, passed a resolution unequivocally opposing all future Class One railroad mergers. (Read the press release here.) Although this conversation between Ron and Reconnect America Host Bill Moyer took place before Robert Primus was fired from the Surface Transportation Board, RWU has also released a statement condemning the move and demanding Primus’ immediate reinstatement. Solutionary Rail will be addressing this in the coming weeks as well. Ron and Bill’s discussion ranged from this resolution and the stakes involved in the merger for workers, to the service meltdowns that Ron witnessed as a railroad worker during the last merger wave in the 1990s, to the larger question of whether the coast-to-coast transcontinental railroad that UP and NS are proposing to form might not be a better idea if it were owned and overseen by the public. Reconnect America is hosted by Bill Moyer, co-author of the book Solutionary Rail: A People-powered Campaign to Electrify America’s Railroads and Open Corridors to a Clean Energy Future. Check out the essays and supplemental posts that complement this podcast HERE. Learn more, get involved and pitch in to support the work of Solutionary Rail at SolutionaryRail.org. Keep the podcast ads-free and without paywalls by making a tax-deductible donation HERE. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit solutionaryrail.substack.com

    1h 2m

  6. 08/29/2025

    Interview: Taking on Wall Street—and its Railroads (w/ Former Congressman Peter DeFazio)

    I hope you'll take some time this Labor Day weekend to listen to my conversation with former Congressman Peter DeFazio, aka Tiger of the House (an honorific and comparison with the great Oregon Senator Wayne Morse, the Tiger of the Senate). Serving as chair of the powerful House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee for the last four of his 36 years in Congress (and as a member for all 36), he has a priceless and practically peerless perspective on why it is so important for government to be a counterforce to the insatiable appetite of Wall Street. Mr. DeFazio's career spanned a period when, to his dismay, the checks on big banks, controls on corporate trade, and limits on election spending all went off the rails. He saw firsthand the rise of "Precision Scheduled Railroading" and how it left service, communities, and public interests behind, as Wall Street targeted railroads as an extractable resource, not unlike the forests and communities he also fought to protect. In 2022, alongside the late Representative Donald Payne J.R., who tragically passed away last year, DeFazio introduced H.R. 8649, the Freight Rail Shipping Fair Market Act. Solutionary Rail was honored to have provided a Rep. Payne a briefing ahead of his taking over the Railroads Pipelines and Hazardous Materials Subcommittee in 2021. Much of that was strongly reflected in the H.R. 8649. In our interview, DeFazio reveals how the lobbying power of the Class I railroads, and their ability to retaliate against their customers for trying to get better service, ultimately killed the bill. A progressive who represented a largely rural and politically diverse district, Peter DeFazio sought to create common cause with common sense solutions, always putting communities, the environment, and long term resilience ahead of special interests. We could learn a lot from him, and this interview is an opportunity to do so. I especially hope the rail shippers out there tune into this one. In the fights ahead, we need shippers to stand for a rail system that works for big and small shippers, urban and rural trackside communities, workers, and passengers alike. We'll be stronger if we fight shoulder to shoulder with no one left behind. Listen and enjoy! Reconnect America is hosted by Bill Moyer, co-author of the book Solutionary Rail: A People-powered Campaign to Electrify America’s Railroads and Open Corridors to a Clean Energy Future. Check out the essays and supplemental posts that complement this podcast HERE. Learn more, get involved and pitch in to support the work of Solutionary Rail at SolutionaryRail.org. Keep the podcast ads-free and without paywalls by making a tax-deductible donation HERE. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit solutionaryrail.substack.com

    43 min

  7. 08/17/2025

    Interview: A Labor Leader's Take on Railroad Mega-Merger, Cross-modal Solidarity, New Legislation, and More (w/ Greg Regan)

    Greg Regan is president of the Transportation Trades Department (TTD) of the AFL-CIO. He has been an outspoken advocate in defense of workers and shippers over the last several years, as Class I railroads have made deeps cuts to both their workforce and the quality and reliability of their service in pursuit of stock buybacks and dividends for predatory “activist investors.” We got a chance to talk with Greg about the Union Pacific’s proposed $85-billion acquisition of Norfolk Southern, a pair of important pieces of legislation recently reintroduced in Congress, the importance of solidarity between workers across different transportation modes, and more. This is the first in a string of interviews tackling the latest developments in the railroad industry and their implications for ongoing attempts to put rail transport back in service of public interests and solving 21st-century problems. Stay tuned for more! Reconnect America is hosted by Bill Moyer, co-author of the book Solutionary Rail: A People-powered Campaign to Electrify America’s Railroads and Open Corridors to a Clean Energy Future. Check out the essays and supplemental posts that complement this podcast HERE. Learn more, get involved and pitch in to support the work of Solutionary Rail at SolutionaryRail.org. Keep the podcast ads-free and without paywalls by making a tax-deductible donation HERE. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit solutionaryrail.substack.com

    48 min

  8. 08/09/2025

    Interview: How to Fix the U.S. Railroad Problem—and the Country (w/ Phillip Longman)

    Phillip Longman is Senior Editor at Washington Monthly and Policy Director at the Open Markets Institute. He has also written for publications like Foreign Affairs, the Atlantic, and the New York Times Magazine. Last October, Phil published the essay “Train Drain: How deregulation and private equity have gutted the U.S. freight rail system—and with it, the promise of America’s industrial renewal”. In a pair of followup pieces in January and June of this year, Phil expanded the argument to include other modes of freight and passenger transport. Phil's thinking is deeply aligned with the vision behind Reconnect America, making this one of the most valuable conversations we have published thus far. Stay tuned to hear more from Phil in the weeks ahead. Reconnect America is hosted by Bill Moyer, co-author of the book Solutionary Rail: A People-powered Campaign to Electrify America’s Railroads and Open Corridors to a Clean Energy Future. Check out the essays and supplemental posts that complement this podcast HERE. Learn more, get involved and pitch in to support the work of Solutionary Rail at SolutionaryRail.org. Keep the podcast ads-free and without paywalls by making a tax-deductible donation HERE. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit solutionaryrail.substack.com

    1h 36m
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Ratings & Reviews

4.8
out of 5
22 Ratings

About

Reconnect America is the new podcast from Solutionary Rail that presents a creative yet common sense vision for U.S. railroads. It weaves together the genius of community and technical experts, workers and policymakers, advocates and scholars. Reconnect America reflects a decade of research, writing, and advocacy aimed at illuminating the ways in which the U.S. rail system can be harnessed to better service public interests and to address 21st century problems. Reconnect America is hosted by Bill Moyer, co-author of the book Solutionary Rail: A People-powered Campaign to Electrify America’s Railroads and Open Corridors to a Clean Energy Future. Please help us keep the podcast ads-free and without paywalls by making a tax-deductible donation at SolutionaryRail.org. solutionaryrail.substack.com

Information

  • Creator
    Solutionary Rail
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2025
  • Episodes
    24
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Solutionary Rail
  • Show Website
    Reconnect America

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