Free Lunch wrote:
> On Sun, 02 Mar 2008 15:16:49 GMT, in misc.trans****t.urban-transit
> Martin Edwards <big_mart_98@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in
> <Bxzyj.69719$jH4.23599@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>:
>> Free Lunch wrote:
>>> On Sun, 02 Mar 2008 03:46:58 +0900, in misc.trans****t.urban-transit
>>> Miles Bader <miles@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in <87tzjq46zh.fsf@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>:
>>>> Jym Dyer <jym@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> writes:
>>>>> =v= Of course, massive oil subsidy is the only reason that
>>>>> wasteful trucking has been competitive (false-economical) with
>>>>> rail in the first place, but rising oil costs are starting to
>>>>> make some things undeniable.
>>>> There's also the massive subsidies to maintain the highway system in
the
>>>> first place -- you constantly see complaints that trucking is
>>>> responsible for 90% of road wear, but pays very little of thath cost.
>>> Trucks pay for a share of the road through taxes or tolls, but they do
>>> have to share with others. Rail has decided that they don't want to
>>> share, except through contract, so they have to pay for their own
>>> dedicated routes. Tough for them. We would be much better off if rail
>>> had competitive carriers on all trackage and the tracks were run by a
>>> utility.
>> The system that has failed so spectacularly in the British
privatisation.
>
> Why did it fail in the UK? Did the regulators let the utility ignore its
> duty to maintain the tracks? Did it charge too much?
Both. Despite that the cor****ation called Railtrack went bust, and a
lot of stock market virgins who had not been warned that share capital
is risk capital got burned. In the great tradition of Friedmanism many
of these were seniors who lost their life savings. In the few examples
of train operators running competitive services, the cheaper ones were
removed to make more slots for the big companies, notably the egregious
Virgin Trains, not a cor****ation but a partner****p of five people led by
the notorious Richard Branson. The trackage was renationalized in all
but name, while the routes were recently refranchised. The architect of
this fiasco was the last Tory Prime Minister, John Major: it was
actually a privatisation too far for Margaret Thatcher. The network of
Womens' Institutes, well known for their cultural if not overt political
conservatism, were investigated for Communist influences when they asked
soem awkward questions about it. Mr Major still sits for the safest
Tory seat in Parliament.
--
Cor****ate society looks after everything. All it asks of anyone, all it
has ever asked of anyone, is that they do not interfere with management
decisions. -From “Rollerball”
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