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[quote]QUOTE: Originally posted by CSSHEGEWISCH What recourse would shippers or operators have if the rate-regulated infrastructure company elected not to invest in increased capacity?[/quote] If revenues are volume based, why wouldn't any rational company invest in capacity increases? You see, that's the difference, because right now revenues are premium based, not volume based. Secondly, a regulated utility generally can't defer in capital investment if the demand curve stays high and the revenues are steady. The capital spending protocol is implicit in the rate determined by the regulators. [quote]QUOTE: There is an alternative to shipping by rail if you don't like rail rates: it has been in existence since the 1920's and is called the truck. [/quote] Well, if you want to stretch things that far, why do you say "there is an alternative", rather than "there are alternatives" to shipping by rail? Truck is just one way of moving something from one spot to another. There's also car, pickup, bicycle, tricycle, motorcycle (with or without sidecar), barge, ship, paddleboat, jetboat, canoe, blimp, airplane, helicopter, glider, rocket, hod, conveyor belt, wheelbarrow, pram, backpack, surfboard.................. Of all these, ships and barges come closest to rail in terms of the amount of stuff that can be moved at one time, and airplanes are best in terms of moving something at speed. The problem with your logic is that you are avering that the stuff that moves best by rail can just as easily move by truck, thereby making truck a *viable* alternative. Remember, rails are best at moving large amounts of stuff at speed. You're not shipping 10,000; 5,000; even 1,000 tons of stuff via truck, ergo the truck is not a viable alternative to rail in most cases.
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