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Ed, <br /> <br />I sincerely appreciate the tone and content of your last posts. You made some truly valid arguments. <br /> <br />Speaking of captive shippers, you really can't argue that captive shippers are captive simply because no other railroad wants the business. Most captive shippers did not start out being captive to a single Class I with "differential" rates. Take a look back a few decades, and there were more Class I's competing in most areas of the country, and doing so under rate regulation. The oft dissed Montana farmers at one time had three separate transcons to select from (GN, NP, and Milwaukee), with a fourth weak link in the form of UP coming up from Pocatello. Now it is down to one transcon and the same weak UP link in Silver Bow. Or take the case of most manufacturing facilities in the U.S. Most of those still in operation today were built when there was a multitude of Class I's under rate regulation. Does anyone think such facilities would still have been constructed where they are at (and in the same numbers) if they knew they would be subject to no head to head rail competition and differential pricing? Read through the energy press regarding the duress captive coal fired power plant owners are having with delivery rates suddenly being doubled by the two western Class I's. One can easily paraphrase their owners lament today - "If we had known the railroads would do this to us, we would not have located our plant or our source of coal on only one Class I line." <br /> <br />I challenge you to take the time to contact rail oriented businesses that are looking for a site for a new facility, and ask them if they are willing to locate that facility with access to a sole Class I rail service provider. You will find that they are on to the differential pricing schemes of the Class I's, and will only locate (all other factors being equal) where they can access rates and services from more than one Class I. <br /> <br />If you are coming from the perspective of a railroad insider, it is legitimate to say that the industry ain't broke, so don't fix it. If you are coming from the perspective of a rail shipper, the consensus is that it IS broke. The U.S. is losing ground in manufacturing and production to other nation's, and part of the blame lies with differential pricing. <br /> <br />Here's another challenge: Find a nation outside North America where railroads engage in differential pricing. I haven't been able to find one. Perhaps someone with more motivation to prove the open access proponents wrong will be able to provide some examples.
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