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[quote]QUOTE: Originally posted by oltmannd [quote]QUOTE: Originally posted by futuremodal [quote]QUOTE: Originally posted by oltmannd This just in! OA a smashing success in Europe! http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/10/19/business/transcol20.php NOT! [/quote] LSHMCOOMN! Of all the crap that Don Phillips has put out there, this article was probably the worst (and given the fact that he was a Washington Post hack, that's saying alot!) This was commentary at best, with no references for comparison. It is fantasy, the way AAR wishes the real world was instead of facing the world as it really is. Tell me oltmannd, where are his references? his statistics of comparison? None? Hmmm, not suprising at all. He quotes one so-called "British Rail consultant" as saying things in Europe are a mess all due to OA, yet he reluctantly admits the varying governments' foot dragging has effectively delayed things. The entire (and disparate)European rail system was formerly government run railroads, with all the inherent inefficencies of government run railroading (aka: Amtrak). I guess you thing the Europeans should have sold the entire system to one of the US Class I's, since of course they are such great contributors to the societal welfare here in the US! Not! God help the Iraqis if Hemphill and company turn that system into the closed access nightmare of captive shippers, bottleneck rate gouging, paper barriers to shortlines, et al! Then for sure they'd all want Saddam back! If you had even bothered to read the "British Rail Operations" thread on this very forum, you would know that the predominance of passenger trains is the main reason freight cannot be transfered from road to rail. That is Europe's Achilles Heel when it comes to freight railroading, capacity is maxed with too many passenger trains. However, even with that inherent drawback, railroad freight marktet share in Britiain has increased 40% since OA was established (source: The "British Rail Operations" thread). Read the Italian OA thread I started, you will see yet another new business utilizing rail for intermodal movements, a business that would be on the roads right now if European railroads had remained nationalized or gone North American-style closed access. The fact is this: Business opportunities are being explored and develped under OA in Europe, despite the fact that passenger services hog the mainlines, and it's something that would NEVER had happened under a closed access regime. Even you would have to admit to that. Closed acces is an anachronism that should rightly go the way of the buggy whip. [/quote] Thanks for attacking Don Phillips and Mark Hemphill. That really helped your arguement... So, the issue is HIGHWAY vs RAIL? The measure of success is how much traffic you divert from HIGHWAYS? I thought single rail line shippers were CAPTIVE and there was no such thing as HIGHWAY competition for them? Truckload IM shipments around here are up 20% YOY. How'd that happen? ....and we all know how the European economy is booming.... [/quote] Well, well, well. I like how you set that up: (1) Use an op-ed piece by Don Phillips which attacks the OA system in Europe (a system BTW that is still in its infancy and still being held up through France) without any facts to back up his allegations, then (2) use the logical ensuing critisism of said article by me as a way of trying to belittle the arguments set forth. "Why, you can't attack Don Phillips. How dare you. He is a GOD!" Well, your phony indignation don't fly here. Since Don Phillips and Mark Hemphill are basically mouth pieces for the current U.S. rail system, one cannot parse a critizism of the closed access rail system without occassionally mentioning by name the acknowledged proponents of the closed access system (especially when you brought one of them up). If you are offended by any critizism of Don or Mark, then you are a hopeless drone for their cause. Regarding trucks vs rail, even you can comprehend the fact that certain commodities move best by rail, e.g. coal, grain, multiple containers, etc. Railroads own this traffic on surface corridors, it is impossible for trucks to provide any meaningful competition for these commodities, ergo to suggest that trucks are competition for unit grain trains or coal trains is asinine. So unless you are an idiot (and I will give you the benefit of the doubt that you are not), you know that any such shipper of grain, coal, et al who only has one Class I for rail access HAS NO OTHER TRANSPORTATION OPTION OTHER THAN RAIL to move those commodities. They are thus CAPTIVE SHIPPERS. When you are talking about current truck traffic, it is a completely different scenario. Although truckers are not competitors for commodities that move best by rail, railroads ARE competitors for commodities that ostensibly move best by truck, at least in those corridors where the rails are in place. That is where the opportunity exists for railroads to draw traffic off the highways, either via TOFC/bi-modal or COFC/RailRunner. This is the big opportunity in Europe, and despite certain EU members intentionally stalling the full implementation of OA, there has been a significant shift of freight from European highways to the European railway system since OA was first implemented. No one, not Don Phillips, not Mark Hemphill, not Larry Kauffman, not even you, can deny the shift is due to OA, and that much more can and will happen when the reluctant nations are finally forced to grant OA rights to the myriad of freight companies. And that more than anything is reason to give rightful critizism of those who disingenuously claim that OA "won't work". Representative democracy "didn't work" the first few decades it was tried, but we stuck with it and now we literaly rule the world. Representative democracy and open access are analogous. Give them a fair chance. They will work.
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