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[quote user="Dragoman"] Bucyrus -- Now I feel you are over-simplifying my points. Sure, everyone enjoys life without additional regulation.  This was certainly the case when safety regulations were proposed, and labor laws, and anti-child-labor laws, etc, etc.  The question cannot be whether the business is "enjoying life without them", because that will always be the case.  It is not a question of "No Regulation" vs. "Unlimited Regulation".  The question must be whether the regulation serves a valuable purpose, and does it accomplish it fairly and effectively. "In a free market" you must have relatively equal power between buyer & seller.  In monopolistic regulated industries with high barriers to entry -- which is exactly what the railroad industry is -- a pure free market system does not -- cannot -- work properly.  Where Amtrak has little or no alternative options as to which railroads to use on a given route, then the roads can work fairly with Amtrak to negotiate terms of carriage, or it can directly or indirectly tell Amtrak where to go.  They have that (monopolistic) power, and Amtrak has no politically-acceptable alternative but to forego its plans & desires.  The railroads have that power.  But given their status as common carriers, created not as "freight" railroads, but as railroads, shouldn't that power be exercised with some view to what is reasonable?  What is beneficial to the community and to society at large?  What's wrong with hoping that corporate executives -- and the corporation they represent -- will act in the public interest? <div style="clear:both;"></div> [/quote] You say that the railroads have the monopolistic power to reject Amtrak, but at the same time, the railroads should be reasonable because they are required to operate in the public interest according to some standard of reasonableness, fairness, effectiveness, and benefit to the community and society at large.  Who defines that standard in explicit terms?  And where is the line drawn between the monopolistic power and the obligation to operate in the public interest?  <o:p></o:p> I would say that, in the view of many executives of the freight railroads, a government mandate to share their corridors with HSR is not reasonable or fair.  Indeed, they might view this crash program for instant HSR as being reckless, not only for them, but for the society at large.   <o:p></o:p> With the stimulus and bailouts, the government has indulged in some massive transactions that they cannot even explain in understandable terms.  They are free to throw around public money without a clear agreement, and then to demand some equally vague quid pro quo from the recipients.  And if the railroads don’t dance to the government’s tune, they might go public and demonize the railroads like this did to the Wall Streeters.  You partner with this government, and the next thing you know, they are telling you how much profit is okay and how much you may pay your executives.   <o:p></o:p> The government has already come across as being arrogant and ham-handed with their on-time performance standards with financial penalties for the railroads hosting HSR.  And the government has already demonized the freight railroads for holding up the economic recovery by being too slow to partner with the states in the execution of HSR agreements.  And then the government, as if they are entitled to the private railroad corridors, announces to the public that they are going to insist that the railroads enter these HSR agreements.   <o:p></o:p> Given all of this, it does not surprise me that the freight railroads would be extremely wary of the HSR bandwagon and all the strings attached to it.  Given what he is up against, I am actually quite surprised that Mr. Ward would stick his neck out and push back publicly the way he did.
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