WSJ: America's Back Working On The Railroads

mattduke · Light Sweet Crude Joined: Oct 28, 2005 Posts: 1362

The government's uneconomic, tax-funded interstate highway system certainly reduced the ability for railroads to compete. With the peak oil writing on the wall, private investors see a future need and are allocating resources in anticipation of providing for it in the most practical means possible. Government meanwhile is encouraging us to burn our food.

billp

Tyler_JC

So that's about 5 billion a year?

That's less than what we spend on cell phone ring tones per year!

With ever increasing demand for rail transport, the railroad companies should have no problems raising this capital.
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Bas

LoneSnark · Intermediate Crude Joined: Nov 15, 2007 Posts: 508

emersonbiggins

cube · Fusion Joined: Mar 12, 2005 Posts: 3586

Tyler_JC

cube · Fusion Joined: Mar 12, 2005 Posts: 3586

LoneSnark · Intermediate Crude Joined: Nov 15, 2007 Posts: 508

emersonbiggins

I figured that my example of the railroads wouldn't hold for back east, but was land parcelization even in the ballpark of the levels that exist today? It seems like the problem of multiple owners has been compounded with the advent of suburbia and high rates of homeownership, where attempting to build anything infrastructural-scale (on the private end) almost assuredly results in an insolvency in short fashion.

Thanks for the info about that book - I'll look into that.
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LoneSnark · Intermediate Crude Joined: Nov 15, 2007 Posts: 508

You are right that parcelization would make the problem worse. But it is not clear that parcelization for railroads is worse today than 100 years ago. Railroads today, so far, do not enter urban (and thus suburban) centers because they are only interested in hauling freight. And as the average rural farm size has dramatically grown in size, I would suspect parcelization has actually decreased in rural areas, which constitutes most of America.

That said, the principle is still the same. A railroad builder back in teh day, even with a hostile political environment, will always have the upper hand when negotiating with holdouts because it has private information: only it knows which parcels are needed (only possible route for track) and which can be done without (sidings, rail yard, etc). So, thanks to its right to both lie and sign conditional contracts, circles can be run around land owners.

Now, I did not mention this, but current laws make this impossible even if the government tacitly supports the endeavor because they would still need to publish environmental studies, neighborhood impact reports, transportation impact reports, apply for zoning permits, etc. Such activity completely obliterates any would-be railroads hopes of having private information during the negotiation process, as anyone interested can just check them out from the county and know what the railroad is planning, which means everyone that could be a holdout will be, making eminent domain absolutely necessary to proceed in all cases.

edit: Of course, as I think more about it, even this has a work around if you buy the right-of-way long before beginning the political process. This will dramatically lengthen the time required, since even in the old days it would take longer to buy the land than build the railroad, but it can still be done as long as the politicians are on your side.

emersonbiggins

As you concur, it is definitely apparent that government intervention has made the expansion of private [infrastructural] entities at the very least cumbersome, and at worst, prohibitive.

One wonders how much of the boilerplate will continue to exist and, indeed, be enforced during the next economic depression. The post-peak future only looks bright for railroads, IMHO.
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"It's called the American Dream because you'd have to be asleep to believe it."

George Carlin

Kingcoal

Hell, in this country we can't even seem to rebuild abandoned railways even when the right of way still exists! Where I live in Allentown, PA, there used to be a line that came up from Philadelphia called the "Bethlehem Branch" because it terminated in Bethlehem PA which is right next door. SEPTA acquired the right of way from the defunct Reading Lines and closed it a couple of years later in 1984. Since then, it's just sat, in disrepair, but hell, the right of way is still there and so are most of the tracks. Local governments have done study after study as to whether they should revive it. One estimate is to electrify the entire line with a total cost of about $150M. That's chump change; maybe a couple hours worth of our Iraq costs.

There is another line which NJT is looking into restoring going from NYC to Philipsburg, NJ. This is part of the old "Black Diamond" line, which ran from NYC to Buffalo, NY. PA isn't interested in that either.

All over my home state there are abandoned rail lines which can be restored at minimal cost - no problem obtaining the right of way because it's already there. Electric trolley lines, rail lines, you name it; you used to be able to get anywhere in this state by rail. Rail transit is very cheap from an energy standpoint. It's very frustrating to see because if they can't even rebuild old rail lines, then I doubt there would be any interest in building new ones.
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