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2006 - The Year of Re-Regulation of Railroads?

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[quote]QUOTE: Originally posted by futuremodal And of course, it needs to be pointed out that in all likelyhood neither ed, Tom, ironken, LC, or mudchicken have any experience in economic analysis, which is why they think the world of expertise stops at the union hall. Some punk management type tells them it can't be done, and they gladly regurgitate the misinformation. And woe to those who beg to differ if they are not professional railroaders, 'cause if you ain't ever jacked a run 8 or took some slack up the backside, "why you don't know nuthin' bout how these here railroads funkshun." Suffice it to say, older transportation theories state that the logical upper limit of steel wheel on steel rail is around 125 mph, so to expect railroads to achieve a doubling of average industry speed from 25 mph to 50 mph is only "impossible" to those who have not studied transportation theories. And to try and explain revenue maximization to those who think revenues are derived from increasing load factor per car, not tons of revenue-producing product delivered per time period, is like trying to explain fiduciary fiscal factuality to a feculent foppish frump. [/quote] FM - This thread is not a license for you to get on your high rocking horse... Doubling of the industry speed is likely to be a project of significant length as we who actually run the trains and see on a daily basis the inefficiency of the system. The aging infrastructure, the inadequate locomotive power and lack in many cases of enough decent cars to haul the product. The repetitive BS from customers who are constantly trying to use the rail system in ways never intended and always seeking to avoid payment of valid transportation charges through one loophole or another. Gee, I wonder why farmers have fought so hard to keep grain movements subject to tariffs instead of contracts in a last gasp to keep a regulatory hold on railroad pricing... The level of investment required to double speed would be HUGE. It is unlikely that an economic return could be earned on such an investment even in a world where railroads show some hope of earning their cost of capital. I know you'll see this as an opening to hawk your open access foolishness, again, but no amount of OA and financial mumbo jumbo analysis will change the amount or character of the necessary investment. That is something you have to learn by inspection and observation, all the analysis in the world is worthless without facts, as are most of your speculative "analysis" . LC
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