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[quote user="Datafever"][quote user="futuremodal"] [quote user="Datafever"]Thank you for clarifying that for me, but I am still not very clear on where this would lead to. A company that owns infrastructure in a high traffic corridor is probably going to negotiate rates that are fairly reasonable.  That company will also probably do a pretty good job of maintaining its infrastructure, because that's where the money is.  In such a situation, there probably isn't even any need for any form of government regulation. But how about a company that own infrastructure in a low traffic corridor (a branch line out in the boonies).  I only see two possibilities. One is that the company charges sufficiently to cover the costs of all infrastructure maintenance and make a profit on top of that.  This will probably be quite high, and therefore the shippers are really no better off than they were before. Two is that the government regulates the price that can be charged.  This will likely not cover the cost to maintain the infrastructure.  Over the years, the infrastructure deteriorates to the point of becoming unusable.  And in this case, the shippers are worse off than they were before as they now have nothing instead of an expensive something. [/quote] On regulation, we in the utility sector have done quite well with a regulated infrastructure.  There is no reason to assume that utility regulation of the rail infrastructure would not have the same positive results. [/quote] Are there any utility companies that only own infrastructure for a "light traffic" corridor?  It seems to me, and I might be wrong, that it is much easier for a utility to spread the cost of infrastructure maintenance over its entire customer base.  Also, the utility probably has expectations of future expansion into those remote areas.  Whereas the owner of railroad infrastructure would probably be more likely to sell that portion of their infrastructure that costs more to maintain than the business it generates. [/quote] There is a Canadian company that has just proposed building a transmission line down to California via SE Idaho.  It is strictly an open access line - other power producers will utilize the line to ship electricity down to Terminator country.  Idaho officials are very excited by this proposal as it will cross through the nuke reservation near Idaho Falls, allowing for the commercial development of nuclear generation facilities at the site.
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