Paul -- I'm not advocating. I'm reciting history as I saw it. You asked why stop-off cars; I showed but two reasons out of hundreds of possible scenarios -- all tightly regulated, to the benefit of anyone who wanted to plan next year's budget. Yes, railroads are in better financial shape now than then -- but are they better railroads? Merging eliminates local warehouses, putting more longer-distance trucks on the (Federally supported) intertstates and (locally supported) state highways, where they might as well carry the load the whole distance, eliminating the railroads altogether in that market. As it is, the financially-sound mega-railroads often have trouble turning a wheel as their finances improve. Airlines are deregulated and boy, is it a pleasure to travel now! Trucks are deregulated, and we can enjoy watching some drivers of several nationalities snoozing at 75 after driving over the mandated but difficult to enforce limit of hours. Anyway -- reg/dereg/re-reg is beyond the scope of this list. Back to EL! Randy Brown - -------------------------------------------------------------- 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 The Erie Lackawanna Mailing List http://EL-List.railfan.net/ To Unsubscribe: http://Lists.Railfan.net/erielackunsub.html ------------------------------
This HTML page is © 2000-2008 Blue Moon Online System and The Railfan Network
This page and the data contained therein may not be reproduced
for any form of commercial use without the explicit permission
of J. Henry Priebe Jr. or his duly authorized agent.