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beaulieu and cogland, Thanks for the detailed information.  I apologize for having to take the devil's advocate way of inducing the necessary responses, but often that is the only way to find out what people really think, not just the pat answers inherent under the ego's conscience control. Two things I'd like to add - I have in the past made the statement that, although "no current passenger system makes a profit" (not my words but a popular belief put forth by rail advocates), I still believe that a profit making passenger rail operation is possible under one of two scenarios.  One is in tour trains, the other is in the ability to get the passengers from their driveway to their destination in a faster, more comfortable, and more convenient (e.g. let 'em take their autos with them, etc.) way than is currently available with driving, taking the bus, or flying.  Under these auspices, I reject the notion of taxing people out of their cars to force them to use rail, which seems to be the major reason for such high patronization of European passenger trains.  If the driveway to destination factor is met in each of the three subcatagories, you don't have to tax people out of their cars, they will use the rails by choice.  Because the Europeans tax their road fuels at a rate higher than that necessary to maintain the road systems, this causes a market skewing that makes it seem as if a rail passenger service might be making a profit, but I will not count such as an example of profitable passenger rail service.  Keep your road taxes at the user fee level and no more, and we'll see if your passenger trains actually are profitable. Secondly, freight can move by rail in short haul corridors if the only alternative to the single railroad is trucks and there is enough freight available at each cycle completion to form a decent minimal consist.  It is universal that over the road truck rates will be above the corresponding average rail rate.  Just price at a rate below that of the truck rates, and it's yours.  The key is to minimize any carload shunting, sticking to mini-unit trains unbroken at either end.  Works for aggregates, grains, containers, truck trailers, etc.  Yes, this applies only to corridors where there is but one rail service provider, e.g. no intramodal competition.  But, that's for another topic...........
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