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Railroads Struggle to Deliver Coal to Utilities

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[quote]QUOTE: Originally posted by CrazyDiamond [quote]QUOTE: Originally posted by futuremodal [quote]QUOTE: Originally posted by CrazyDiamond [quote]QUOTE: Originally posted by futuremodal Again, I will ask you this: Can you name any other industry besides the rail industry that has engaged in such a canabalistic attitude toward it's hard assets?[/quote] Sorry didn't bother to read this topic thread till tonight. To answer your question: Telecommunications, espescally in the traditional landline part. [/quote] Most landlines are still in place. With broadband and mobility being the preference of most people, it is the new accounts that are going dsl and wireless. There has been a net loss of rail capacity. There has not been a net loss of communications. The answer is of course, no one but the railroads have emaciated themselves in that vein. [/quote] #1 The landlines business is to telecommunications like the RR is to the transportation. #2 Both telecommunications and transport are increasing. #3 Landline business is decreasing, with voice shifting to wireless cellular another telcommunications sector....kinda like RR traffic shifting to tractor-trailor sector. #4 Using voice, video, and data as the three traffic types, voice and video have been exceed greatly by data. #5 Landline capacity has been axed to free up space in the Central Office. #6 VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) is a free way to send telephone calls over the Internet. Phone companies are currently seeing a decrease in their voice traffic and revenue. The companies that do a bunch of each are doing okay....but the company that is a pure play landline company is taking a pounding. They are losing too VoIP and cellular. Don't tell me they are not suffering from a net loss in traffic and business.......if they weren't why are they lobbying goverment to (a) make VoIP over the Internet illegal, and (b) prevent number portability from landline to cell phones??? So yes both the telecomunications and the transport industry has seen net growth, some of their sectors has seen a net loss in growth i.e RR and landline....and the landline sector specifically has sold off hard assests to reduce various costs, and free up some cash. You asked for examples of other industries that have done what the RRs have done, and we have given you 2 or 3 now......and you refuse to listen. Maybe you should spend $60K on a model dream RR that implements your wisdom and then go live in it. [;)] [/quote] No, you've given 2 or 3 examples of why you just don't get it. First, a failed steel industry analogy, then an even more absurd auto industry analogy, now right out of left field a failed telcom analogy. But first, your erroneous analogy.... "#3 Landline business is decreasing, with voice shifting to wireless cellular another telcommunications sector....kinda like RR traffic shifting to tractor-trailor sector." Pray tell, why have you compared railroads to landlines and wireless to trucking? Trucks don't fly, they need a physical continuous infrastructure just like railroad transporters. If anything, the closest transport analogy to wireless would be air freight, and there just isn't all that much that has or will shift from rail to air freight. A better analogy would be comparing old land lines to jointed rail, and fiber optics to welded rail. In that, you see that there is no retrenchment in the telecommunications sector, rather a shift from an older technology to a newer technology. The telcoms aren't cutting back on their infrastructural reach like the railroads. Quite the contrary, they are constantly expanding their infrastructural reach. And no, they are not selling off their land lines for scrap, because they still have a bunch of stubborn customers that still use land lines (dang that AARP!) Railroads cut back because their collective management didn't want to deal with the hassles of an expanding customer base, prefering instead to consolidate the customer base and extract more pricing power over these remaining customers. That's why a lot of former rail traffic ended up on rubber tires, on foreign soil, or disappeared in the form of abandoned production facilities. It is ironic that, in another twist on the saga, those same railroads fall all over themselves to bring in Asian products at marginal rates, products that used to be produced here in the US at captive facilities (and corresponding captive rates). Again, it all boils down to monopoly behaviour vs competitive behaviour.
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