My railroad CSX has Buisness Units for everything under the sun like lumber coal oil transport tation equipment but…What about actulay forming a buisness unit to run commuter trains or sell service to states and transit agencys on a Contract Basis. I only know of one company that is doing this and that is Herzog Transit which started out as a Gon rental comany. Insted of weaiting for the phone to ring actulay beat down doors too sell the service.
The choice is clear…Nashville is starting a bare-bones operation at 20,000,000.00 How much to build 60 miles of a another lanes of highway…I am not asking the railroad to take a bath here but to actulay make money or get improvemnist in infrastacure courtsy of the states by geting into the buisness of goverment contracting.
Probably not “actively” pursue such a business because it slows down freight and costs the railroad its own money. But they should coyly accept such proposals from cities and states, letting the governmental agencies use their strengths and taxation abilities to pay for improvements which will allow both public and private uses to have a better right of way to use in that particular corridor. It is much better to have both railroad and government on the same page than antagonistic toward each other. I think both the Georgia state highway department, oops, Department of Transportation, and City of Atlanta could do a much better job in getting CSX on board for commuter rail. But of course, neither government really wants to trade from highway lobby campaign contributions ($$$$) for those of the rail lobby (0).
I dont know if your familiar with the Trans Texas Coridor Thats going on here now or not but this is what Ive have suggested at every public hrg Ive been to on it…My oppinion is the state could build the RR then contract with Amtrak or Herzog to run the trains…That way you would get a lot of people off the highway and let the trucks have it…I dont know how much it cost to build a mile of track vs. a mile of highway but its got to be cheaper,and faster…[2c] Danny