Freight rail has been in the news lately over a labor impasse that threatened to shut down the U.S. national rail network earlier this month. Congress ultimately voted to impose a contract that will result in the average rail employee earning $160,000 in annual compensation by 2024. This dustup between rail management and labor will likely not be the last, especially as railroads seek to deploy new productivity-enhancing technologies necessary to compete in an increasingly high-tech transportation marketplace.
Unions are likely to resist labor-saving technologies out of perceived self-interest, but the 20th-century experience with over-regulation in the railroad industry suggests Congress
