Edit post

Edit your reply below.

Post Body
Enter your post below.
[quote]QUOTE: Originally posted by CSSHEGEWISCH On-line delays caused by a derailment would be a legal nightmare that could take years to settle waiting for a determination of what caused the derailment. "Open Access" as predicated by futuremodal comes across as invisible nationalization since he believes that the rights of way should be owned by government or quasi-governmental bodies. Also, competition on every mile of track and lower rates cannot be guaranteed short of re-regulation more along the lines of the Civil Aeronautics Board over commercial aviation than anything of the Interstate Commerce Commission over railroads and trucking. Also, what would be the provision for abandonment of track if no operator wants to provide service over that line? It can happen. [/quote] No, I believe the ROW's would do best if they function as private regulated utilities, with the federal government providing tax incetives to approach an equalitzation with highways and waterways, and with the option of state and local governments adding their investment prowess in the form of public/private consortiums as they see fit for their own economic development desires. On that latter point, such investment would work great under open access, since the desire of the infrastructure operator is to add capacity to increase business potential, and if someone else is willing to foot the bill for a secondary line, so much the better. It doesn't work so well under the present system, because the desires of states and localities to keep lines open, upgrade secondary lines, or build new lines, more often than not does not fit the plans of the Class I who is only trying to eliminate capacity and consolidate terminals to better position their pricing power. Secondly, if the Class I has pure monopolistic pricing power in a certain area, there is no point in states and localities spending tax dollars to save a line on which the shippers cannot afford to use anyway.
Tags (Optional)
Tags are keywords that get attached to your post. They are used to categorize your submission and make it easier to search for. To add tags to your post type a tag into the box below and click the "Add Tag" button.
Add Tag