Login
or
Register
Home
»
Trains Magazine
»
Forums
»
General Discussion
»
Two more articles on rail incapacity = trouble for RR's
Edit post
Edit your reply below.
Post Body
Enter your post below.
What you're missing Tom is that both these articles are from the railroad industry's POV. Why else would they also incude the fallacy of "subsidized" trucking, since we all know (even if folks like you can't admit) that trucking is the key link for getting the goods to the consumers and/or from the point of origin? Since it is this link that is most likely "subsidized" via non-user fees, and since the rail industry is completely dependent on this vital link, the rail industry itself is a beneficiary of that "subsidy", so why should they continue to obfuscate the issue ("trucks are subsidized, but we pay for our own ROW. Waaaaah.") to solicit pity from the general citizenry? <br /> <br />We have also pointed out the fallacy of "unprofitability" and "marginality" of underutilized trackage. The timber industry has mega-units of "unprofitable" assets right now, yet they keep these assets at a marginal cost for decades, because they know these assets will become profitable in time. Perhaps that's because the timber industry likes being in the timber industry and is willing to invest the time and cost of maintaining assets until such can be utilized more profitably, whereas the railroad industry seems to have had a distain for itself and the concept of moving bulk commodities at speed, at least for the last four decades. The contrary thing of it is, demand for transporation services is a steadily growing market segment, has been for the last four decades, yet the railroads have treated their assets like an anachronism that is no longer demanded. The point has been made ad nauseum that there has always been an implicit demand for shippers to use so-called marginal rail lines, but the methods and styles preferred by the shippers did not fit into the narrow strictures of railroad SOP. The railroads en masse seemed more willing to scrap it than to allow others to innovate profitable usage of the track. <br /> <br />It should strike you as profound that folks on top of the industry are finally willing to admit the mistakes incorporated in Staggers, mistakes that were obvious from day 1 to those outside the industry.
Tags (Optional)
Tags are keywords that get attached to your post. They are used to categorize your submission and make it easier to search for. To add tags to your post type a tag into the box below and click the "Add Tag" button.
Add Tag
Update Reply
Join our Community!
Our community is
FREE
to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.
Login »
Register »
Search the Community
Newsletter Sign-Up
By signing up you may also receive occasional reader surveys and special offers from Trains magazine.Please view our
privacy policy
More great sites from Kalmbach Media
Terms Of Use
|
Privacy Policy
|
Copyright Policy