Railroads: Toward the 21st Century Ltd.

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Computers and the men necessary to run them have nourished a new breed of railroaders—management experts with wide-ranging interests. And they, in turn, have fueled the railroads' drive to diversify—if the Government eases up—into related areas of transportation. The Missouri Pacific, which already owns two truck lines extending 17,000 miles, last week applied to the CAB for permission to start an air-freight service. Says W. Graham Claytor Jr., new president of the Southern: "The railroads must press hard for the right to sell transportation, not railroad service. Then they must supply it in the most economical form suited to the customer's needs, including in many cases a combination of highway, rail, water and even air." Saunders enthusiastically agrees. "A transportation company," he says, "should be able to offer a customer every kind of shipping service."

In the effort to do that, the railroads are showing increasing enterprise. The Great Northern, Northern Pacific, Union Pacific and Southern Pacific, among others, have opened sales offices in the Far East. The Pennsy, in turn, has opened offices in seven European cities. The aim is to build up a business in containerized shipments that can be handled by rail after they are unloaded from ships. The U.S. railroads are pushing to establish a "land bridge" service by which freight bound between the Far East and Europe would travel by ship to the U.S., go by rail across the country, and on ships again to its final destination. The savings in time would be significant: 28 days from Japan to Europe by way of the land bridge v. 44 days on an all-ship transit through the Suez Canal.

Such is the future of U.S. railroading, and so auspicious is the outlook for the Penn Central merger, that Stuart Saunders last week relaxed his customary aggressiveness. "I have heard it said that a long courtship makes for a happy marriage," said Saunders, as he looked back over the years of fuss and frustration, "and I hope that it is true, for it will surely mean eternal bliss for the Penn Central." Bliss, perhaps. But with Saunders running things, certainly not tranquillity. Honoring Saunders last week with its annual Benjamin Franklin award, Philadelphia's Poor Richard Club summed up the situation pretty well. "When Benjamin Franklin arrived in Philadelphia," said a society spokesman at the presentation ceremonies, "things began to happen. It's the same with Stuart Saunders."