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Ed: As to what I do, and what I've done in the past, I have anwered that before. I have been involved in various acpects of transportation as it relates to grocery and retail pertroleum distribution. I have worked for the USDA as an ag interviewer, and am now working for an energy company. That being said, it is completely irrelevant to the topic at hand, because the subject matter is one being played out by the players involved, and I am just relaying some of that information and providing my own comments and opinions on the matter(s). My concern lies from the perspective of being an average American, concerned about the ability of U.S. companies to compete on the global stage. You do not have to be employed by or own stock in such companies to know that you may still feel the effects of their downfall, should that occur. If you want information on companies that have shut down or left the country, or who have had some other negative effects due to rail captivity, I would suggest you contact the NITL, CURE, or any other such shipper organizations. Since you don't believe me, maybe you'll believe it if it comes straight from those effected. Of course, I get my info from them, so you'll just be getting redundant information. None of your sources you cite would even bother to take the time to differentiate between captive and non captive shippers, and there's the rub. They are part of the pro-rail lobby, and as such to diseminate such information would be counterproductive to their own lobbying efforts. And BTW, I also have taken the time to get their POV as well, unlike you. And for a "definition of the definition of 'average revenue per ton/mile intermodal, captive v noncaptive' ", I gave the source (the Rail Price Advisory). Feel free to look it up. You can access that information from the source's I provided. Go to the CURE website. Your statement "If railroads were forced to lower rates for captive shippers, then under you reasoning would they be forced to provide all of their traffic to railroads?" is non sensical to me, and as such I take it to be some attempt at analogy for the purpose of illistrating your counterargument. Under regulation, rates were more equalized between captive and non captive shippers, but no one was "forced" to provide all their traffic to the railroads in return. Perhaps you are suggesting some kind of tit for tat actions should some form of rail reregulation occur. It's a non sequitur, because if they are rail shippers, they're going to ship by rail anyway if such rates come down. They will only ship by truck for the same reason they are forced to do so now - trucking is the mode of last resort, and is only used for those shipments the railroads either can't or won't handle as part of the logical supply chain. Of course, if your memory served you better, you would recall that I am for a market based reduction in rail rates via the introduction of competitive rail services to all rail shippers. How that will happen is still being played out, but the logical approach is to eliminate the anti-trust exemption railroads have enjoyed, then shippers will be allowed to use the courts to empower a solution to that anachronistic problem of the "natural monopoly" of railroading in North America. So you see, there is no need for your Orwellian "controlled economy" scenario to accompli***his feat, since anti-trust is an apt adjunct of the free market system. Bob: I do not know Terry Whiteside personally, but I have had email correspondences with his office in the past. He is one of the leading voices for addressing the nationally counterproductive railroad rate discrimination. Last I heard he was working out of Billings MT. Why do you bring him up? Murphy: Since you yourself don't bother to go to the sources I cite, then the joke"s on you. As such, I will offer to you a little taste of "murphyism": Murphy, shame on you, tsk tsk tsk, etc. etc. etc. [:D][V][:P][*^_^*]
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