On railway investment, we are locally based ‘Yankee traders’

With regard to the editorial “Thinking Big” (June 5) regarding the new Chinese railway in Kenya, PG readers might be interested to know that:

1. The “Yankee trader” mentality is alive and well at our own small company, alas involuntarily when our own efforts to save the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad got in the way of Big-Thinking local institutions ranging from the then-Department of Environmental Resources to the Governor’s Maglev Advisory Council. Forced out of our hometown by Bigger Thinkers, we stumbled into the international market, in which we have been active ever since.

2. The Chinese railway is a gift to the Kenyan people, constructed to compete with the existing parallel railway, which is operated by a private-sector consortium — kind of like UPMC’s new Monroeville hospital competing with Highmark’s.

3. We were shareholders in railways in Malawi and Mozambique until allowed to sell, for a modest profit, to African investors who were fronting for Brazilian investors who were in turn fronting for Chinese business interests.

4. Expensive wars vs. expensive railroads is a false choice, as a third option is (relatively) inexpensive railroads. The USA’s private-sector rail freight network is generally considered a model for the world.

I will leave to others to compare our own experience with the Big Thinking behind Skybus, Maglev, Yesterday’s Airport of Tomorrow, bike lanes, Bus Rapid Transit, etc., except to note that as we are spending our own money we have had to Think Small. HENRY POSNER III

Chairman Railroad Development Corp.

Green Tree