Interesting, but un-modeled industries

[nkp_174]

Yet government subsidies continue on a massive scale to this day, still robbing the taxpayers. If it was wrong in the 1800's, it's wrong now, perhaps more so. There has never been any evidence to show that government involvement improved anything.

My point was that by attempting to dictate to the market how it must work in order to receive service, the railroads might better serve themselves and their investors by working to service the needs of the customers. FedEx and UPS are driving the US Postal Service to destruction by using that exact formula. Railroads drive potentially large customers right into the hands of their competitors by saying: "We don't serve your region."

No one ever made money by saying "no".

I agree with most of what you are saying, but I do think that money is sometimes lost by saying yes. The railroads are not always great at service (I recall Triple Crown being on time less than 30% of the time a few years back). LCL was always more of a nuisance to the railroads than anything else. It resulted in half filled boxcars getting hauled around...causing wear and tear...and eating up fuel. Boxcars aren't free...and neither are locomotives...even if the freight revenue covers the maintenance and crew costs...there is the liability and the capital invested in the additional equipment. If I recall, a wooden boxcar would typically last for 15 years...after that, the repair costs would exceed 1/15th of the replacement cost. Railroads want their cars filled to capacity and moving at all times. If it is less than full or sitting idle...it is losing money. There were a number of interesting studies performed in the 19th century on this sort of thing. I bet that if you check the industry publications (and not the railfan publications), there are studies about how many cars a mainline connection needs to produce per year to be profitable...and hence worth while to a railroad of a specific size. I'd bet that it is #of cars per mainline switch...and not # of cars per industry. I'd also bet that since the railroads are not filled by people in capable of mistakes or exceptions...that sometimes they serve industries that cost them money and other times they fail to serve ones that could make money. I'd love to know how many customers have been alienated by poor service...which may have been the result of the CEO, an engineer, a conductor, a lowly brakeman, or any of the other people capable of making a mistake.

I agree that FedEx & UPS are hurting the postal service...but I think the internet is really what is killing it...FedEx & UPS are just taking away some of the more profitable business (and the USPS is stuck doing lots of the public service stuff). I wonder how the Canadian Post is doing...which is a great segway back to the topic...

Postal facilities. The main Cincinnati post office was build as part of the Union Terminal project. It had many platforms for the mail. It also sat next to the large roundhouse. It would have, as would the roundhouse with engines and the station with passenger cars, head end cars from the B&O, NYC, PRR, C&O, N&W, Southern, and L&N...not to mention any that were part of alphabet schemes (Lackawana baggage and sleepers arrived in Chicago on NKP trains).