Public Rail and Ecosocialism

January 2026 • Mary Nickum

What does public rail have to do with Ecosocialism? To answer the question. Let’s first define Ecosocialism. Ecosocialism brings together two complementary ways of thinking about humans and the environment they live in. The “eco-” in Ecosocialism comes from the science of ecology and its emphasis on the complex and dynamic interactions among the living and non-living components within an ecosystem. In particular ecologists understand how the life-supporting functions within an ecosystem can be disrupted by the behavior of one organism, and that organism is humans.

Ecology, however, lacks a social analysis; it has no way of explaining how economic and political forces drive human behavior and social change can take place. Ecosocialism combines the insights of ecology with the rich tradition of socialist thought and action, especially those associated with Marxism. Marxism shows that the ecological crisis is rooted in a destructive economic and political system, capitalism, and it provides ways of understanding how capitalism works and of envisioning a system beyond capitalism, in which production is driven by human need. At the same time, environmental disasters, such as Chernobyl and the Aral Sea remind us that challenging or even eliminating capitalism is not enough. Whatever else we may think of the “really existing socialisms” of the 20th century, we can agree that with few exceptions, they failed miserably in ecological terms. Thus, Ecosocialists are fighting for a new sort of socialism, one that considers the place of human beings in the planet-wide biosphere (System Change Not Climate Change.

Ecosocialism is not a monolithic framework. In fact, a lively and healthy debate goes on among Ecosocialists, especially concerning short-term strategy. All Ecosocialists agree that capitalism has to go, but they also recognize that the only way forward is through collaboration with more mainstream organizations that are not socialist. They also agree that a range of environmental reforms must be pursued, especially those that radicalize the people fighting for them and that bring together disparate branches of the environmental movement (System change Not climate change 2024).

The landscape of post-capitalist alternatives has deepened in recent years as growing numbers of activists and scholars identify global capitalism and its dynamic of compound growth as the primary driver of the climate emergency. Ecosocialism is one of the foremost among them, which has become a worldwide movement that challenges the hegemonic project of “green capitalism” while also addressing the ecological weaknesses of earlier forms of socialist politics. Ecosocialists convincingly demonstrate that capitalism is incapable of resolving the climate and broader earth system crises in a genuinely sustainable, let alone just, manner.

Now, the second part of the question is what public rail is. Public rail is railroads owned by the government. Some advantages of public ownership include:

Limiting Monopoly Abuse – One of the main advantages of public ownership is that it limits companies from using their monopoly power to abuse consumers in terms of pricing. This is especially true for natural monopolies with only one firm where it is hard for new firms to enter the market. That's because it is hard to scale up the production in such industries: think how hard it is to build a network of electricity submission. Public ownership can scale up these industries without harming consumers.
Profit Goes Back to Taxpayers – Because the government’s money to fund investment in publicly owned companies and industries comes from taxpayers, these companies’ profit goes back to the government, which is then invested in other public infrastructures such as railroads, schools, or hospitals. In this way, the public has an indirect return on its’ tax money. If the company was privately owned, that profit would have been shared among shareholders.
Prioritizing the Long Term Over the Short Term – State-owned enterprises tend to focus more on the long-term benefits than privately-owned companies. State-owned companies will be willing to incur some costs in the short run as long as they can have more benefits in the future. Moreover, the government will also consider maximizing the consumers’ benefit. On the other hand, privately-owned companies will keep their focus on maximizing long-term profits. That is because they need to make their shareholders happy constantly. Otherwise, the company will be in some financial trouble.
Better Labor Conditions – It is more likely people who work at a state-owned company will enjoy more benefits than those working in a privately owned company. This is especially true for unskilled work that a profit-maximizing firm could easily replace.
Positive Externalities – When the government owns the railway system, they can reduce the ticket price even though it might mean that they are not making any profit. The reason for that is to provide the incentive for people to use public transportation to reduce pollution; however, this is not the case for a privately owned company (www.studysmarter.co.UK).

Public transportation and shipping to reduce pollution is the key “take away” of this article. Greenhouse gas emissions are the main culprit in our rising carbon footprint (Fig. 1).

Figure 1 Total U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions by Economic Sector in 2022

Total U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions by Economic Sector Including Electricity End-Use Indirect Emissions

According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the greenhouse gas (GHG) emission trends are:

Since 1990, gross U.S. greenhouse gas emissions have decreased by just over 3per cent. From year to year, emissions can rise and fall due to changes in the economy, the price of fuel, and other factors.
In 2022, U.S. greenhouse gas emissions increased 0.2 percent compared to 2021 levels. In 2020, there was a sharp decline in emissions largely due to the impacts of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on travel and other economic activity. In 2021 and 2022, the increase in total greenhouse gas emissions was driven largely by an increase in CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion due to the continued rebound in economic activity after the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2022, CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion increased by 8per cent relative to 2020 and 1per cent relative to 2021. CO2 emissions from natural gas consumption increased by 5 per cent compared to 2021. CO2 emissions from coal consumption decreased by 6 percent from 2021. The increase in natural gas consumption and emissions in 2022 is observed across all sectors except for U.S. Territories, while the coal decrease in primarily in the electric power sector. Emissions from petroleum use increased by less than 1per cent in 2022 (www.epa.gov).

The following economic and ecological benefits were gathered and detailed by Public Rail Now (PRN) and the Climate and Community Institute:

Freight mode shift:

Rail reform and public rail ownership would have the potential to shift:

Over 2,000 billion ton-miles from trucks to rail by 2050

For:

An average of two thousand lives saved, and 70 thousand injuries avoided from fewer crashes,

130 million CO2 of avoided carbon emissions,

Over $10 billion in savings on road repair costs

Over $11 billion in averted costs in traffic delays

Passenger mode shift

Rail reforms, especially when paired with investment in high-speed rail, have the potential to shift at least:

100 billion passenger-miles from flights to rail by 2050
300 billion passenger-miles from cars, trucks, and SUVs

to rail by 2050

For:

An average of two thousand lives saved, and 110 thousand injuries avoided from fewer crashes,
50 million CO2 of avoided carbon emissions,
$2 billion in savings on road repair costs
Nearly $6 billion in averted costs in traffic delays
Substantially reduced radiative forcing from passenger flights. Radiative forcing is a phenomenon associated with air flight that contributes more to climate change than direct greenhouse gas emissions from flights (every year)

Rail has a far lower impact than on-road and air transportation for both passenger and freight movement across all or nearly all these categories. With potential mode shifts for passenger and rail transit, the differential rates at which external costs are generated can be used to estimate total averted costs realizable from public rail ownership and associated reforms. These savings are substantial. In dollarized terms, the value of averted costs from realizable mode shifts could average up to about $140 billion a year (in real 2022 USD) and reach $190 billion a year by 2050.

AMTRAK

The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, better known as Amtrak, was created in the same era as Conrail to take over money-losing passenger routes from railroads across the country, many of which were facing bankruptcy. Amtrak would be given the right to operate over the entire national network and assume responsibility for providing passenger service. Even though Amtrak was taking over unprofit-able passenger services, for political reasons, Amtrak was charged with achieving profitability, a contradiction that has led to numerous issues in subsequent decades. As with Con-rail, Amtrak was formed as a quasi-public corporation with shares held by the federal government.

After a long series of debates about which passenger routes would be retained, 20 railroad companies opted to turn over their passenger services to Amtrak, which initially continued operations over 13 of these railroads’ trackage. The first official day of Amtrak service began on May 1, 1971. Not all railroads initially handed over their passenger trains to Amtrak. Some, including the Southern Railway and the Rio Grande, chose to continue operating their own passenger trains—though they too eventually handed them over to AMTRAK. Companies that did hand over their trains paid a one-time fee or provided equipment to help AMTRAK start up service.

AMTRAK’s subsequent history is complicated and worthy of much more detailed examination than can be provided here.

Despite frequent underfunding at a Congressional level, Amtrak has succeeded in providing crucial transportation links across the nation. Today, Amtrak provides passenger rail service to over 500 towns and cities across 46 states. Amtrak still operates three different categories of services: Northeast Corridor, State-Supported Routes, and Long-Distance Routes. Amtrak owns its own tracks in the Northeast, Wolverine, and Keystone Corridors. The remaining routes operate primarily mover Class I trackage, whose freight trains are a frequent cause of delays. Freight railroads often ignore statutory priority for AMTRAK passenger trains, forcing passengers to wait for long freight trains to pass.

After facing a sharp drop in ridership during the Covid-19 pandemic, Amtrak’s trains are now setting ridership records as demand for climate-friendly travel options surges. With the injection of tens of billions of dollars from recent infrastructure laws, the FRA’s study on restoring long-distance routes, and Amtrak’s Connects US plan, America is poised for a passenger rail renaissance. Interference from Class I railroads remains one of the largest impediments to an otherwise promising landscape for passenger rail (Thomas 2024).

Decarbonization

Current plans to decarbonize transportation within the US, particularly on a timeline consistent with even 2° C of warming are extremely tenuous, to the point of implausibility. Climate scientists warn repeatedly that even with the transition to EVs underway, we also have to reduce driving and Light Duty Vehicle (LDV) dependence to decarbonize personal transportation. Meanwhile, pathways to decarbonized air travel and long-haul trucking depend on rapidly increased uptake of technologies that are still mostly undeveloped, unproven, and/or uneconomical.

Given the rapid pace of decarbonization needed; the outsized and growing share of emissions that come from transportation, and the ease with which rail can be decarbonized with safe, proven, and easily deployed technologies (in contrast to trucking and air transportation), increasing freight and passenger transportation by rail is almost a certain necessity for decarbonization.

Achieving mode shifts in line with the ambitious forecast scenarios present a massive opportunity to make headway in decarbonizing this sector. On their own, the average annual emissions reductions from mode shift to rail estimated here would cut one-tenth from current sectoral emissions. By 2050, the total greenhouse gas emissions averted through mode shift to rail would reach nearly 5,000 MMT CO2e—equivalent to 2 per cent of the world’s remaining carbon budget to maintain a 50 per cent chance of staying within 1.5° C of warming, as of 2023 (Climate and Community.org)

The US railroad industry is structured currently as an underregulated, fragmented network of large regional monopolies or duopolies, in which private railroads have immense market power. A very basic tenet in economic theory is that monopoly power tends to result in reduced output at higher prices. Market power allows producers to focus on only their most profitable customers, reducing output but realizing higher-than-normal profits. This pattern is clearly visible in railroads in the US: reduced service, reduced investment, reduced workforce but higher prices and profits. Diminished output is visible in the data and consistent across metrics, while the industry has been seeing far higher-than-normal profits

This is the capitalist approach we see that creates a process where the climate crisis cannot be solved. This process must be curtailed if the climate crisis is to be brought under control. Public Rail Now and the Climate and Community Institute have shown it is doable, but who will do it? The solution is Socialism, where the people are the government. The Socialist government acts in the name of the people, for the greater good. One important question remains: Will a Socialist government be installed in time to prevent climate collapse and other earth systems with it?

Public Rail is a perfect representative of Socialism. Public Rail certainly acts for the people, whether it is shipments by freight or passenger for work or travel, the people benefit from its consistent, inexpensive use. The environment benefits from the removal of much of the truck, automobile and airplane usage for freight and travel. Entire ecosystems then benefit consequentially from Public Rail.

A solution to the climate crisis rests in Socialism. Will the US be the first to attain a Socialist government and maintain it? Only time will tell, not too much time, we must hope. Currently, the SPUSA is working toward this goal. We must work tirelessly to outpace the climate crisis.

Sources

Albert, Micharl J. 2023. Ecosocialism for Realists: Transitions, Trade-Offs, and Authoritarian Dangers. Capitalism, Nature and Socialism 34(1):11-30.

https://doi.org/10.1080/10455752.2022.2106578

https://climateandcommunity.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/McDonald_from_margins_to_growth.pdf

https://systemchangenotclimatechange.org/ecosocialism/

https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/sources-greenhouse-gas-emissions

https://www.studysmarter.co.uk/explanations/microeconomics/market-efficiency/public-ownership/

Thomas, Maddock. 2024. Putting America Back on Track: The Case for the 21st Century Public Rail System. Public Rail Now. Chicago. IL.