And NorthWest, but FedEx was the jackpot. Probably OK because it was just boxes and not people. 
Why does 8 miles of new track cost more then a half a billion dollars? South Shore West Lake Branch?
And then Delta ate Northwest, so Delta got into Memphis anyway.
Not for long, their status as a hub went away quickly.
The problem with Memphis as a âhubâ was not primarily with capacity (even with FedEx and the military presence) â it was with the airport authority and the carriers colluding to keep prices originating in Memphis artificially high even when on a segment of a longer trip billed at a lower price. It was amusing, but not funny, to listen to or read one of the Authorityâs flacks trying to justify this practice âbecause there were more available flights out of Memphis per day with all the connections through there.â What was amusing was that if you bought a âthroughâ ticket, and thought you could board âmidflightâ with the coupon â surprise! if you didnât physically fly the first segment, the whole shebang got cancelled. I wonder why that became the procedure⌠well, no I donât, actually. [:-,]
To paraphrase Gertrude Stein, âscam is a scam is a scamâ. I suspect the threat of long runways and Southwest in Tunica had its effect; I certainly worked out several ways of assuring rail connections between Memphis and the Tunica area in the years the situation was at its âmost extremeâ, and the prospective numbers were promising.
It certainly made me much more understanding of ICC practice âall those yearsâ in assuring regulated rates between different points were proportionalâŚ
That is the same for most hub cities. Before the computers caught on I had a travel agent that would try book me on a connector out of Atlanta that I never got on. Saving $300-$500 from the non-stop fare. I always refused as I risked loosing all my FF miles if I got caught.
Which is one reason people love flying Southwest, because they donât operate on the Hub system you can literally save hundreds and hundreds of dollars lying cross countryâŚif you donât mind stopping 6 times and flying for 24 hours(I kid you not, when I worked processing baggage there was a person flying from San Jose to Atlanta on Southwest with 6 stops along the way, it was over 24 hours of flying, but the rampers said the person got a cheap flight that way).
Everyone has realized that the government is the only source of money. Any project government money supports is inflated by every bell and whistle that they can find because no one is watching the pot. Projects are extended and inflated (see California High Speed, La Plata platform, etc) and lots of people make lots of money. Sorry to be so negative.