TR News May-June 2018: 40 Years of Transportation Deregulation

The year 2018 marks the 40th anniversary of the passage of the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978. Although it was not the first congressional action to reduce federal economic regulation of transportation, the landmark act is widely regarded as the turning point in the more than 90-year history of the federal government intervening in the structure and operation of the country’s transportation industries. Soon after deregulating the airlines, Congress deregulated the freight railroad, trucking, intercity bus, and maritime industries and would begin the process of dissolving the Interstate Commerce Commission and other longstanding federal agencies responsible for regulating transportation rate and service offerings. Forty years later, the era of deregulation remains familiar to most transportation practitioners, even if the specifics of how it came about may not be. In TR News 315: May–June 2018 experts from the federal government and private industry will examine how deregulation came to the policy forefront and what it has meant for the deregulated industries after four decades.