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OK, Ed, I am going to try and answer this one. <br /> <br />(Man that was a long post. Did you compose it elsewhere and then copy and paste it? Yikes. But I digress.) <br /> <br />Item, close down all routes with no "profit"- I assume you use a loose definition here. And we are discussing operational profits only, not over capital costs, sorrect? <br /> <br />So now you are down to, as you put it, mostly the NEC, plus perhaps the Cal Trans trains and the Cascades on the West Coast. Now you go to your meeting, probably with the state governors, and you'd come out of that with the NEC as your only Multistate, and with the Cascades being run entirely by Washington, with no PDX-Eugene Train, and the Cal Trans still operating, and probably an extra three Talgo sets from Oregon and from a few train cuts in WA to make it fit the budget. <br /> <br />I like your approach to the NEC states. Gutsy. It's probably how Hill or Harriman would've handled it. Direct- put up and I come to town sooner, otherwise, I'll take my show on the road to states that do want me. <br /> <br />And guess what? It works- how many cities bend over backwards in order to get the new _____ plant. We do it all the time up here. Right now Portland is liking Danish boot in order to get a windmill, er, turbine maker to move into here. <br /> <br />But I am looking at this from the finance stance, as in order to succesfully privatize, you have to have a profit plan for recovering costs and genreating a return above cost of living increases and inflation, when there is any. <br /> <br />If the govs say no, what do you do them? Problem with NEC is it's a capital costs drain. Are you proposing to be the NEC operator, or owner too? If you own, then you pay property taxes, adn you are burdened with track maintenance. Your killer problem will be getting those capital dollars. <br /> <br />You've not proven yourself, you're just the NEC's current owner/operator, no track record. The banks won't finance you without a track record. No improvement to NEC, then no new construction either. So your threat to take your show elsewhere doesn't have enough teeth. <br /> <br />So the big question in your theory is, how do you rebuild the NEC, and with whose money?
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