Open Access Primer for the casual observer needed

Trains Magazine General Discussion
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As a casual railfan, I have recently noted the Open access thread, which seems to be lively discussion I would like to follow but has become a pi**ing contest-I find it hard to wade back thru to get up to speed. Much like deregualtion of Trucking and the Airlines- I believe it roughly means any train can go anywhere the free market leads them- Can someone please give some basic (unopinioned) brief of the theory? who is pushing/promoting it-RRs/STB/shippers? who owns the right of way RRs/Govt-public/leasing co-
Hiding agendas? I regularly read Trains Mag but have not picked up on this-please enlighten the great unwashed masses (or at least me)–Thanks

2

markn -

For track use accountability -

http://www.zetatech.com/CORPQIII44.htm

From the shipper’s perspective -

http://wbc.agr.state.mt.us/
http://www.railcompetition.org/
http://www.railcure.org/index.htm
http://www.ams.usda.gov/stb.htm
http://www.ecmc.info/pages/697800/index.htm
http://www.logisticsmgmt.com/article/CA335760.html
http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/149320.html

For anti open access views -

http://www.cato.org/pubs/regulation/reg20n2g.html
http://www.railwayage.com/nov00/access.html
(Yeah, there’s more, but these two articles present the gist of the opposition)

Finally, an interesting “off the wall” proposal, good for a few chuckles -

http://www.jhcrawford.com/energy/interstaterail.html

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Proponents are big shippers and their orginizations who think they can eliminate railroads’ “monopoly profits”.

They get the idea that there are such profits, there are not, look at any railroad’s annual report, becuase where there is head to head railroad competition for “desireable” traffic the carriers ofter price at or very near long run variable cost, which frankly is a stupid thing for them to do because if all traffic is so priced there is no profit and the railroad consumes its capital through under maintenance. This is not a new problem as the drivers of that decision have existed ever since the first time there were two railroads with two points in common.

To the best of my knowledge futuremodal is the only active proponent of the concept on this forum.

Mac

4

…and so much for an “unopinioned” post. Typical, predictable, and unreferenced as usual.

“Methinks thou dost protest too much”