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RR's are full - then let truckers pull doubles!

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In response to limitedclear.... If railroads aren't about the shippers, what other entities out there are using rail service? Why have this "service" called "rail transportation" if the shippers are percieved as the enemy? Are you suggesting that railroads are an entity unto themselves, existing for the sheer reason of existance? Talk about BS...... Secondly, do you even know what constitutes a monopoly? A monopolist has control over captive customers, so in the railroad business any rail dependent shipper who only has access to one Class I IS subjected to monopolistic pricing behavior by that Class I, thus the situation reflex a de facto monopoly. The monopolistic characteristics of the North American railroad industry is mostly a regional phenomenon. Whole areas such as northern and eastern Montana, southern Idaho, Utah, western Colorado, parts of the Dakotas, et al, are all reflective of this situation, as reflected by the higher rates being charged to customers in those areas relative to rates being charged to customers with access to more than one Class I. Having access to two Class I's is only slightly better, since usually both Class I's are so huge as to afford ignoring all but the biggest shippers, e.g. a situation of oligarchy. There are plenty of shippers who would use rail if only one of the oligarchs would simply return their call. There are plenty of transportation companies such as 3PL's and 3PI's who would send their business over the rail lines if only it didn't take three years to negotiate a haulage agreement with the owners of the railline, by which time the potential customers got tired of the BS and renegotiated their contracts with a trucking company who is charging a higher rate per load. I will agree with Mark on that point, that efficiency is more than fuel and labor, it is also flexibility and efficacious response to customer needs. When was the last time a monopoly was reputed to be flexible and responsive to customer needs? Remember back when AT&T was a monopoly? Remember what it took to try and get flexibility and responsiveness from them? When AT&T was broken up into several companies, the regulators were wise enough not to let these Baby Bells have sole access to their respective telecommunication lines, otherwise the AT&T breakup would have been pointless, kind of like California's "partial" energy deregulation, and in a way kind of like the Staggers Act. Releasing the railroads from regulatory constraints was a good thing, but that was counteracted by the failure to open access to the remaining Class I rail grid to all qualified users. Yes, there may not be a single railroad monopoly in the classic sense, but the remaining seven rail oligarchs project an attitude reflective of monopolistic behaviors because they and only they control access to their repective right of ways. I know for a fact that people in the railroad industry have been fired for even suggesting opening access in some form or another. They saw an opportunity to enhance revenue on underutilized lines by allowing other operators to use the lines on some sort of fee basis, and they got their asses canned for it. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I do not understand this knee-jerk fear of allowing others to use the property on a fee basis if it results in an enhanced bottom line. Why not allow the trucking firms to run their own trains if the end result would be a shift of freight from highway to rail? What would be wrong with UP allowing UPS to run their own trains if UP themselves can't muster up the crews and locomotives? Can any of you present any studies that would refute the notion that opening access to the NA rail grid would result in a net shift of freight from the highways to rail? And if such were to occur, wouldn't that be reflected in increased revenues for railroads? The only BS I see is a stubborn unwillingness to try new things in order to enhance the bottom line (e.g. make railroading a growth industry in the eyes of the financial markets)and the nation's competitiveness in the global markets.
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