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[quote user="narig01"]   Considering the current escalating price of diesel I thought I would try to restart this thread And I will ask the question:  Considering that coal movements for power companies are a major source of revenue, why can't railroads and power companies get  together to electrify the railroads.  [/quote] As someone who worked in the electric utility business for decades, my company would be happy to sell power to a railroad providing there was a sustaining demand for it. Whether we could earn a return on any required incremental system expansion (generation, transmission, and distribution) to justify the capital investment is the key question.   Dallas Area Rapid Transit, which has one of the most extensive light rail systems in the U.S., buys its power from a variety of electric retailers in Texas. They solicit bids to obtain the best deal, which may come as shock to some folks, and draw power from a variety of suppliers to the grid.  Little if any system expansion was required to make the power available to DART. Houston's light rail system also buys power from the grid. The financial planners for a railroad will look at the same investment model that a power company would look at.  Would the returns justify the investment?   Unlike Amtrak, which is a government agency masquerading as a business, private enterprise must get a return on a capital investment.  Otherwise, it cannot afford to do it. The challenge for a railroad considering electrification is modeling what is likely to happen for fuel prices. If they make the wrong call, as numerous planners have done, with Southwest Airlines being one of the most recent examples, they could be encumbered with an investment that generates a negative return.
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