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Ok. Have had a look - and thanks for those links. Interesting. So let me make a few more observations If I may - and I will use Network rail as an example. 1) The Infrastructure Owner will make the decisions regarding regulating trains. Now; I am not sure how freight trains are timetabled in the US. Are they built up ansd then let loose or are they scheduled to run? With OA all trains will be required to be scheduled. Miss the slot. Tough. Then of course you have all sorts of issues regarding crews and the like. This leads onto the second point................ 2) Delay attribution. Yes. An industry in itself. the Performance Regime. An inverted Dante seven layers. This is based around Schedules 4 and 8 of the railways Act 1993 in the UK. Trains are classed in the UK from 1-9; there are regulated (apparently) with 1 being the highest (express Passenger and Freight - Parcels) with the objective beiung the least overall delay to the system as a whole. This is a fantastic statement if you think about it (sarcasm here). All trains are point to point timed; any delay between those two points is then attributed. As are late starts; waiting acceptance into yards; fire and brimstone. Is there such a system like this in the US? if I were an OA operator and my train was delayed therefore missing an important slot with a rather irate customer at the end I would like redress. This system may even have to extend to short lines... 3) Insurance, crew and the like. My train is scheduled to run from point A to B via VC. it cannot. Where do I run it. Ooops have to hire crew from somebody else. Can i have my money back. 4) Passenger Trains. At some stage they may yet come to dominate. they are infrastructure hungry and any improvement will have a large impact on freight services. I am not against OA services at all. However some of you seem to be arguing for a theoretical paradise and then pointing to Europe as an example of how Open Access works. Let me say this again. Nowhere, nowhere on the continent or in the UK is there total proper Open Access. Nowhere. The infrastructure operators are in the hands of the government to one degree or another (no, Network Rail is NOT private). The priorities which the governments set for the social good come first - we fork out therefore pipers and tunes come into it. With Crossrail even established operators may have their contracts ripped up to make way for the new service across central London. HEx and Hull Trains operate to paths allocated to them by the govt; the tracks which they operate on are subsidised by the government. If I were a private owner running no trains looking to max my profits In would wither set a very low speed limit or charge for very expensive access. There are a rather large amount of theoretics being operated in some of the models. Look and learn from where there is a degree of access - in the UK there are operators yes; but the tracks they are on are subsidised and if they had to pay full or even marginal costs then there would be some mightily narked operators and customers. Besides; why would customers run trains in the long run. It is something which they may have very limited experience of and in 3-5 years the trains may be running back with the established railroad companies. That is what happened to NP over here. the barks for it are a way of customers pressuring the operators regarding rates?
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