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[quote user="Datafever"] I'm not sure that the railroads have ever had much to gain by trying to keep every single transportation dollar.  Some of those dollars come with just too high a price tag.Let's look at a Chicago to Denver haul.  That's about 1000 miles.  Dock to dock, a truck that averages 50 mph would take 20 hours.  Throw in some sleep and eat time, and maybe it would take 30 hours or so.How about a TOFC attached to a passenger train?  First there is the time from the dock to the RR loading platform and the time to load the trailer onto the flatcar and secure it - probably at least an hour.  Then there is the wait for the scheduled train departure - another six hours?  Then comes the 12+ hour trip at an average of 80 mph.  At Denver, the flatcar has to get switched out and moved to an unloading platform - another couple of hours.  And then the trip from there to the receiving dock.  Even at optimum, maybe there have been 8 to 10 hours saved.[/quote]This is an example of what the railroads might have done in terms of wasting time and efficiency, but of course they wouldn't have had to do it in such a convaluted way.  First, who says the TOFC had to be attached to the passenger consist?  Run it as a second section of the passenger consist, aka a dedicated run.  If you have to run both in a single consist, use the TOFC terminals as the point to point reference, and let the passenger portion be switched in and out.In other words, someone with some brain cells could have figured it out to make it work.[quote]But at what cost?  What would the RR's gain be to keep this traffic? [/quote]Market share, increased revenues, increased dividends.........
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