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Michael Ward says no to the President
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;"><span style="font-size: small;">I am a little bewildered at the effort being expended in this thread to try to find an alternate, more nuanced explanation of Mr. Ward’s plainspoken comments.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;"><span style="font-size: small;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;"><span style="font-size: small;">To me, it comes as no surprise that the freight railroads would be reluctant to share their corridors with the new HSR vision.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They would have nothing to gain and everything to lose by doing so.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Moreover, this freight railroad reluctance is hardly a new revelation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It has been in the news for at least a year, and even covered in <i>Trains</i> as well as the <i>Trains Newswire</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;"><span style="font-size: small;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;"><span style="font-size: small;">The worry for the host railroads is the on-time performance standards that will be enforced by financial penalties on the host railroads.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Another worry is that the government will expect some quid pro quo for whatever benefit redounds to the freight railroads from publicly financed infrastructure improvements for HSR on the freight corridors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This expectation of something in return coupled with the authority of the on-time performance begins to look like re-regulation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;"><span style="font-size: small;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;"><span style="font-size: small;">There is also the presumptive heavy-handedness of the government characterizing the private railroad corridors as though they were some sort of public good.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This attitude was reinforced last year when the government blamed the freight railroads for slowing the economic recovery because they were dragging their feet on HSR and delaying economic stimulus jobs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;"><span style="font-size: small;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;"><span style="font-size: small;">Here is a fairly comprehensive discussion of this issue:</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;"><span style="font-size: small;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;"><a href="http://www.economist.com/node/16636101"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;"><span style="font-size: small;">http://www.economist.com/node/16636101</span></span></a></span></p>
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