Highway (trust fund) robbery:Obama wants new taxes to replenish the trust fund depleted by raiding

Consider all the time that Conrail operated without profit for that quarter-century of its existence.

Comparing today’s monopolistic crony-capitalist setup with the multiple-player past (which was destroyed, as I said, by regulation and taxation as well as government support of the competing modes’ infrastructure) is a canard. It is more like one step away from bringing back a larger Conrail if the government so wished.

And they do NOT stick to their lane, they meander into car lanes all the time.

That they do. There are several roads close to us that don't have bike lanes, and the Lance Armstrong wanna be's ride two abreast for miles.

The "natural" progression for a large, mature industry like the railroads is consolidation to the point where you basically have a duopoly at best (this is close to where we are now), or a monopoly at worst. Nobody else is getting in the business of Class I railroading anytime soon, absent -- believe it or not -- government regulation in the form of legal action under U.S. anti-trust law. This is not likely to happen in today's "crony-capitalist" environment.

Interestingly, the most likely "doomsday" scenario for the railroads is not one with excessive government regulations ("crony capitalists" actually love this sort of arrangement) but a breakup of the railroad industry similar to what happened in telecommunications in the 1980s. Railroad companies would be permitted to operate trains or own the infrastructure and right-of-way, but would not be allowed to do both. This "open access" concept would be very popular among shippers/customers but is adamantly opposed (understandably) by the railroad industry.

No, it would take more deregulation to reverse the push towards monopoly at the Class 1 railroad level. Same would apply in Canada, where the major freight players are CN and CP, and they have their own Amtrak in VIA Rail.

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