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<p>[quote user="V.Payne"]</p> <p></p> <p></p> <div><span style="font-family:times new roman,times;">Did I say the paper was independent, my name is on the front after all? The point is investor held railroads have a much different interest rate they must meet to get funds and if one wants to figure out what is the most financially efficient for the economy then the two types of infrastruture should be compared at the same interest rate, particularly when one talks about freight competition that ultimately drives the infrastructure marketplace for railroads. I did both interest rate extremes with AAA bonds in the middle.<br /></span></div> <div> </div> <div><span style="font-family:times new roman,times;"> This isn't a new concept, but has been discussed since the 1920's (references in the paper). Since I am not for socialism, let highways infrastructure projects pay an equivalent to what the market requires and require electronic tolls on road freight to recover that amount, or alternately if there is some common good allow investor held railroads get Federal fund rates for infrastructure without the crazy FRA process.</span></div> <div> </div> <div><span style="font-family:times new roman,times;"> With our politics you will probably have to always give passenger operations (road and freight) a financially leveraged, offset, or otherwise free ride (weighing public good on equivalent subsidy rates per person-mile), but this freight competitive arrangment would take care of infrastructure provision.  <br /></span></div> <div> </div> <div><span style="font-family:times new roman,times;">But there is deep illogic is suggesting different interest rates for each and such drives the ultimate lack of responsive infrastructure. The $750 M to make a tri-weekly train daily is what you get when you move away from the marketplace as otherwise you could get slots at a relatively decent rate.</span>[/quote]</div> <div> </div> <div>Most researchers, when they refer a reader to a source, want to provide an independent verification of their position.  Otherwise, what is the point?</div> <div> </div> <div><span style="color:#222222;font-family:'times new roman', times;line-height:18px;background-color:#f4f4f4;">"Where those rates to be used in the NPV analysis (I typically defalt to AAA bond rates) to determine highway costing.....".  </span></div> <div> </div> <div><span style="color:#222222;font-family:'times new roman', times;line-height:18px;background-color:#f4f4f4;">This sure sounds like you were talking about highway funding.  </span><span style="color:#222222;font-family:'times new roman', times;line-height:18px;background-color:#f4f4f4;">The benchmark rate for federal government debt, which is the source of federal highway funding, is the weighted average cost of government borrowing or the 10 year Treasury Note.</span></div> <div> </div> <div><span style="color:#222222;font-family:'times new roman', times;line-height:18px;background-color:#f4f4f4;">However, I must admit.  Many of your postings are so muddled that it is difficult to comprehend just what you are saying.  As noted by another participant, your postings are full of jargon, and it is difficult to believe that you have a command of what you are trying to say. People who have a good command of their subject are able to summarize their views in simple, declarative sentences without a lot of jargon. </span> </div> <div> </div> <div><span style="color:#222222;font-family:'times new roman', times;line-height:18px;background-color:#f4f4f4;">It has been a long time since American's railroad bonds were rated AAA. The current ratings range from a high of A2/A for Canadian National debt to BAA3/BBB+ for Kansas City Southern debt. UP is A3/A, CSX is BAA1/BBB, BNSF is A3/BBB, Norfolk Southern is BAA1/BBB, and CPR is BAA1/BBB+.  The first rating is Moody's; the second following the slash is Standard & Poors (S&P).  This information can be found on most financial websites, i.e. Bloomberg, Yahoo Financials, etc.</span></div> <div> </div> <div> </div>
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