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[quote]QUOTE: Originally posted by StillGrande CSSHEGEWISCH is on the right track with regards to communities and business which seem to think the rail line is vital to their community but is not worth the railroad's expense to operate. Nothing is stopping these communities from stepping in and setting up their own gov't owned shortline to act as a public service rather than a profit system. Especially if they can't even attract a shortline operator to run the thing at a bare minimum. Treat it like a bus line and give up funding in the county or even city (well, cities) budget. Run it like a commuter rail service. If it is so vital yet such a loss leader, that is what county government is for. Paying as a whole for what benefits the group is better than losing the service and all the attached jobs. The part of Mike's argument I was addressing with state owned railcars was his statement that Montana loses railservice to other states due to a lack of available covered hoppers. If you have the cars in dedicated service, you avoid the argument that the resource (the railcars) is scarce and therefore you are cut off. (On a side note, don't some of the Canadian provinces do the same thing?) [/quote] It took a bunch of local governments a few years of doing just that before they realized that their shippers were still captive to the original Class I owner, thus still reluctant to pay the overcharges for rail service. There is no point in any local government buying a branchline if the potential shippers on it are still constrained by the illogic of differential pricing and captivity to one Class I service provider at the junction. The same goes for purchasing railcars for dedicated service on a captive shortline. The savings will only be pocketed by the Class I, while the taxpayers get saddled with maintenance costs and the shippers get saddled with continued overpriced sloppy service.
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