Randy, you're sounding like a rereg advocate. Do you not think RR's are in better financial shape now than they were in the 1970's, or that absent dereg, the industry would likely have ended up being nationalized? The trend to mega-carriers, mega-industries and decline of small shippers has been going on for many decades, with the major influences being deindustrialization and globalization on the one hand, and carrier pursuit of operating efficiency and competitiveness on the other. Paul B These, and many other, arrangements were strictly regulated by tariffs published by the railroads. For every shipment, the shipper knew exactly what it would cost, to the penny. So did his competitors, the participating carriers, and their competitors. There were no secrets. Every phase and function could be budgetted, to the penny. Deregulation allowed the railroads and their customers to negotiate separately and secretly, with the carriers getting as much as they could and the shippers paying as little as possible. Nobody watched to confirm that the pricing was not predatory in either direction, so the railroads' cost often exceeded their revenues without them knowing it until well after the fact. Dereg also allowed the railroads to drop the service virtually at will. Small shippers were at the mercy of the railroads and prime picking for motor carriers, which could offer more consistent and faster service at the same rates. The railroads, in turn, were at the mercy of the large shippers who could threaten to (and often did) divert traffic to the highways. Ease of entry and exit meant that carriers, both motor and rail, could establish or abandon service with no notice or recourse. Predictability went by the wayside; budgetting became impossible; profitability, on either side, was a gamble. Both carriers and shippers merged or folded, leaving mega-industries shipping via mega-carriers from mega-facility to mega-facility while local business and service dried up. Randy Brown The Erie Lackawanna Mailing List http://EL-List.railfan.net/ To Unsubscribe: http://Lists.Railfan.net/erielackunsub.html ------------------------------
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