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For those of you who have subscription access to the TRAINS newswire...<a href="/trn/print.aspx?c=a&id=1381">http://www.trains.com/trn/print.aspx?c=a&id=1381</a> TVA considers using trains for coal delivery to Memphis plantQuote from Tom White of AAR:"while barge rates remain lower than rail charges, it's largely because of federal subsidies in the form of dredging on navigation channels. "Their right-of-way is built and maintained by the federal government," White said. "Nonetheless, railroads have become very efficient, and can move an awful lot of coal at very low rates.""Two points:1.  Why does the AAR continue to push the "everyone else is subsidized but us" line of BS when most railroads were built with land grants, maintained with antitrust exemptions et al, and are now lining up for federal aid to the public trough?  Memo to Mr. White - barge rates are generally lower because they have lower operating costs.  Water is a very forgiving conveyance, unlike steel and concrete.Every transportation mode is subsidized to some degree.  Acknowledge it and move on already.2.  Wasn't the Mississippi built by God, and not by the federal government?  Ergo, barges' ROW was built by God but is maintained by the federales.  Yes, one can argue that slack water is man-made, but there was riverboat activity long before the first dams were built on the Mississippi.  The federal role in *subsidizing* river transportation is simply one of maintaining prior usage, not of establishing new usage where none existed before.Oh, and about that claim that the rail move can be had at "very low rates" - keep an eye on what's happening to other utilities who also had *very low rates* at one time but are now seeing their rates doubling while service suffers.  Current deliveries, while at record paces for the railroads, are running 86% of demand for the utilities and at higher cost to the consumer via higher electric rates.Kinda like those credit card offers we get in the mail - "very low rates" on an introductory basis, then after a while WHAM!  [B)]
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