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[quote]QUOTE: Originally posted by futuremodal up829 - For some captive shippers, it is true that half the delivered cost of a product is the transportation. If they are ag shippers, a wood products plant, or a coal fired power plant, etc. then they can't just pack up and move closer to their market. [/quote] No business large or small is immune from making bad business decisions. When they do, the question becomes do we bail them out or let the market take care of them. Frequently when the government bails them out, they end up dead anyway. On the other hand every business attempts to lower costs, often by whatever means possible. How successful they are depends on who they are and how much political clout they have, etc. Maybe the grain elevator operators in Montana should start talking about building commodity pipelines to a few very large facilities located on multiple rail lines, including the Canadian railroads. Nafta and the recent eminent domain ruling should enable such a venture, Railroads hate pipelines. All Open Access is doing is shifting costs from one group of shippers to another. Because multiple rail companies are involved, that means multiple top management teams, back office functions, a new organization of some sort to regulate usage and acccounting. and of course each will have to make a decent return to remain profitable, so total real rail transportation costs would go up not down. In addition, there's no guarantee that every shipper with a siding would receive favorable treatment from at least 2 railroads. Successful companies prioritize and focus their business on their most lucrative customers. Consider what airline de-regulation has done to service and fares between small non-hub cities. Concerning funding from some sort of Federal transportation tax, consider how the Transportation bill just passed and signed really works. The real 'policy' behind this is that states and large districts get back 92 cents for every dollar they put in.
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