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More on the negative consequences of monopolistic pricing
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Mark: The railroad market share numbers are horrible. Yes intercity market share is 9.5% but the the US railroad share of all freight revenue is just a meager 6.3 percent. And it will decline even further as trucks grow their business exponentially and railroads continue their slow growth model. Doubles and tripples are going to be sharing the highways with all of us in the near future! <br />What is happening in Montana is no different than what happened here on the East Coast. As industry shrinks, dies and moves off line the rails are pulled up. Trucks can easily out perform rail transport on the short haul. And bulk commodities are not a problem. No law requires a business to provide service at less than cost. And that is what BNSF is facing on many rural lines. Why should they spend millions to upgrade and maintain a rail line than produces little revenue? Revenue is spent on lines that produce traffic. <br />In the grain states many of the branches have not seen a new tie or ballast in years just for that reason. As the old grain elevators give way to the mega operators traffic decreases to the point where revenue doesn't cover the cost of maintaining each little branch. And many times there is no other traffic to contribute revenue. <br />The legislators can easily take some of their highway money and get into the railroad business if they want to maintain the staus quo. The Canadian government has helped their agri business. Why not here? <br />tom
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