Fred B. Rooney, 1925-2019
Fred Bernard Rooney, a former Democratic congressman from Pennsylvania, died Dec. 23, 2019 at age 94. He was a dependable friend of railroads and instrumental in successful passage of the 1976 Railroad Revitalization and Regulatory Reform (4-R) Act, which formalized the creation of Conrail following Penn Central’s bankruptcy, introduced for the first time the concept of railroad revenue adequacy, and provided small steps toward greater railroad economic deregulation delivered by the 1980 Staggers Rail Act.