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If you (CMStPnP) had read my post carefully, you would have seen that I was replying to Schlimn.  And this response is directed to comments made in several posts. "To claim that the project was defeated exclusively by Southwest Airlines is to state a clear lack of understanding of Texas politics" was the last sentence in one of my paragraphs.  I did not bold any of the words in the sentence; I presume you have done it.  I usually don't use bold letters.  It is considered a form of shouting in emails and forums.  If I want to emphasize a point, I use italics. Most serious researchers view Wikipedia with a jaundice eye because of its loose editorial standards.  At a minimum they recommend that anyone relying on Wikipedia cross check the article with more authoritative sources.  I don't know of any graduate school, for example, that would allow a student to rely exclusively on a Wikipedia source.  Readers who are interested in Southwest Airlines history should read "Nuts", as well as several other excellent histories on the airline, to get an indepth understanding of its history.  The founders of Southwest Airlines did not take their clues from Southeast Airlines.  They used Pacific Southwest Airlines in California as their model.  In fact, they had originally planned to lease Lockeed Electra's for their operation, which was the plane used by PSA.  However, because of the opposition that they encountered in getting the airline off the ground, they realized that the B737 was a better option. Of course SWA began its operations during the era of airline regulation.  That is part of the beauty of its story.  It was able to demonstrate, based on what it had learned from PSA, that the regulatory model was flawed, i.e. it promoted inefficient and costly commercial service.  Because of regulation, it was unable to operate beyond Texas until the airlines were deregulated in 1979.  Relatively little capital is required to start an airline.  Everything is leased.  Southwest Airlines, as an example, owns very little.  The airlines are 90 day cash flow operations.  The reason that they come and go so easily is because the capital requirements to get into the game are relatively low.  It is also the reason why they can get out of it quickly. Southwest Airlines opposed the Wright Amendment.  Whether it benefited from it is arguable.  The founders claim that it was a major problem for the SWA business model, which contains a lot of features that the proponents of expanded passenger rail should pick-up on.
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