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[quote]QUOTE: Originally posted by mark_in_utah [quote]QUOTE: Originally posted by up829 Shared access to utilities is a joke and does the opposite of what's intended. For example in my area we have power outages about twice a month, the power company has never heard of ANSI or any of the Power Quality organizations and makes up it's own standards instead. Next year we will be able to 'buy' electricity from another company but they will be using the same rotten infrastructure so my service will be no different. It's also likely that competitive rates will result in even less maintenance to the system. Thanks to power company deregulation we got Enron. [/quote] Congratulation on having some stupid management (along with most of the rest of the US) for your power company. As I noted before, ALL of the deregulation talk was to deregulate the generators, but NOT to deregulate the wires. Most all companies cut line work to SUBSIDIZE the cuts in the generation rates. This was a grossly stupid thing to do, as it actually CUT the allowable rate of return for their stockholders, and cripled the system. The quicker they start to understand this simple fact, the sooner they'll start to invest again into the infrastructure to better serve their customers. This is ALSO where the money is to be made. They did this in Australia (deregulation), and those companies that kept the wires are making money, and those that are generating power are scratching out a living. Same thing goes for RR's. In a deregulated environment the money to be made is in the rails, and NOT in the freight they haul. Surprise!!!!! Want to make more money? Build more rails to relieve the congestion and improve through-put. Run as many trains as possible over the rails as quickly as possible. Keep a few of your own trains on the tracks to compete, but keep the two parts of the business seperate. Make the rails AND the trains both pay their seperate way. You'll be surprised how quickly management thinking changes. Mark in Utah [/quote] Whether public or private, there are plenty of dis-incentives to building excess-capacity into infrastructure. Just enough to meet peak demand is probably the best use of capital. Build more and the stockholders or voters will complain capital is being wasted. Build significantly more in a competitive environment and price wars, defered maintainence, and eventually consoldidation will occur. We're near the end of this phase with the railroads. On the other hand, if there's too little infrastructure or a crisis occurs due to some unforseen event, the owner gains a tremendous amount of pricing power, more than enough to compensate for lost business. As with the energy bill, a crisis prompts government action, incentives, and tax breaks. Virtually all forms of infrastructure are at or below meeting peak demand. Water, sewer, highway, bridges, electric transmission, refining capacity, ports, canals, airport landing rights and now rail. Some of these are public, some private, some regulated, some shared, it doesn't seem to make any difference. I suspect the problem is our very short term expectation for return on investment. in the private sector, and limited funds due to budget deficits and the inability of governments to raise capital using bonds. IMHO the problem FM's shippers face is lack of pricing power due to the global economy. Railrroads now have some pricing power and are an attractive target to blame. Large industries faced with global competition have done the same. Detroit has been leaning on suppliers and outsourcing parts for almost a decade now. Farmers and small domestc producers usually don't have the same options.
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