Often when it comes to building or operating a rail system the topic of what form of funding or ownership gets brought up. I used to be an absolutist about trains being run by private companies and then I realized it doesn’t matter. There are examples world wide of successful state owned rail systems and private ones with everything in between. Each model has its advantages and disadvantages. Often a train is a train no matter who runs it. A private system might focus on efficiency where as a public owned system might offer service where it is not profitable to do so. A public system might be more publicly accountable but might also be turned into a political football (see Amtrak). A private system avoids tax dollars but has costs like interest and shareholders. To me both publicly owned and privately owned rail systems have a role to play and it isn’t one or the the other. On the one hand I am ok with public funding for rail and operational subsidies where necessary but I also don’t accept the notion that rail is inherently unprofitable and can only be done by government.
I came to a somewhat similar conclusion back in the 1960’s when I was in graduate business school and studied the British decision making during the public/private operation/ownership battle over their railways. In the US, we have a very adversarial culture: them vs us and this makes rational collaborative or even cooperative arrangements difficult to construct. Ideologues cannot even allow such thoughts into their brains! Because the US labor movement decided back in the 1930’s to pursue “business unionism,” meaning pay and working conditions rather than taking a political party/policy direction, our battles tend to be “pay vs profit,” which ignores arrangements of a nature beneficial to not only both parties but also to the common good (which used to be represented by regulation). I fear that until the worship of “shareholder value” being the only sacrosanct principle, we are in for a long war of attrition between immovable positions when it comes to subsidies, “profitable public transportation,” and common sense/common good.
Methinks the problem on the private side these days is if something looks lucrative, someone will want to come in and milk it dry. This as opposed to the time when investors looked for a reasonable return on their investment and had the patience to wait for it to happen.
A public “authority” is usually at least a little autonomous, and is still free of such profit taking. That doesn’t isolate it from the financial health of its parent municipality, however, so if there are to be cuts in the city budget, the transportation authority will likely suffer as well.
I liken the “milk it dry” phenomenon to TV 40 years ago (and more). Back then the networks might let a marginally rated show continue through the season - which oftimes meant that the shows would develop a following and possibly go on to several seasons of success.
Today, if a show doesn’t do as well as hoped in the first few weeks, it’s toast.
Equality of results takes away incentive to achieve, so there are fewer results produced. Equality of opportunity is fairer. Equality of results requires a big layer of government to redistribute results from those who have many results to those who have less. That management itself also eats up a lot of the results.
Good points. PPP type operations may prove to be the way.
However BNSF has not shown complete transparency of two projects. We all know of the Devils Lake rebuilding supposedly for the Builder but is now being used for almost all eastbound traffic from Minot - Fargo. Any bets that BNSF will reimburse for the improvements that will need much sooner surfacing - etc. ?
To top it off Minnesota provided funds to start their commuter rail and BNSF has plugged all the improvements causing cancellations of most trips.
BNSF does appear to be trying to improve things as their Capital expenses in 2014 are scheduled to be $1.1B more than UP. But that does need to be compared to the two by some metrics like track miles, revenue ton miles, etc .
Ha ha ha, not even Warren Buffet believes that. I can’t believe you haven’t seen Warren Buffet on Captal Hill talking about how his taxes are lower than his secretary’s and that is unfair. He is the most outspoken person arguing that his and other rich people’s taxes are too low. And Bill Gates is the second-most.
Idiot
This thread is awesome.
That’s music? Well at least it was not Mrs Miller.
The 1% feature the other 99% as what should be their unpaid servents.
Folks keep the thread on topic.
I posted this on another forum, and I will post it here: It is possible to disagree without being discourteous. It is discourteous for a person who disagrees with someone else to call the one with whom he disagrees a demeaning name. In the short time (about seven years) that I have been enjoying participation in the forums I have appreciated the courtesy that is generally shown to other participators. May practice continue
p. s. sorry this named at or should I say aimed at ed?[bow]
I’m thinking maybe instead of locking this thread, it should be moved to Zardoz’s humor thread.
By the way, does anybody remember what the original post was about? It wasn’t about redistribution of wealth.
I still strongly agree with Ed’s position.
In the interest of fairness, let us address Ed’s question so that we can return to a sane discussion.
Sound good to all?
That is a petty and boring post.
Oh yeah? Well I think that his post was important and exciting! Therefore, that gives me the right to call you a big maroon for disagreeing with me.[:-,]
I’d be hurt if you didn’t.
Well…I wasn’t going to respond to this becasue I thought I had expended my supply of mirth and goldth and frankensenth already…
This has my vote for one of the Posts of the Year.
Johnny: If one version of the expression is “Just between us…” (which I think it is) all we need to do is remember our subject and object pronouns for the other circumstance. His construction would leave him saying ‘let’s just keep this a matter between we.’ (Which might not bother him, but would sure bother me…)
Perhaps we should get together off-list and chip in to get him a copy of Fowler for his very own.
When my geology professor friend joined an aviation forum I participate in she quickly became known as “Dr. Spell-chick”. She’s since given up on correcting people. [;)]