Quote:
Originally Posted by esquire
I'm not sure that decentralizing it will fix things as it is lack of proper infrastructure that is really the problem here. As long as the lines are choked with mile long freight trains lumbering along at 90 km/h, I don't know how you can really hope to correct the situation.
|
CN is a big problem too. In Halifax the municipality wanted to do commuter rail (along a route that was built by the public long ago before being privatized through a series of short-sighted blunders). All of the meetings had to be in camera, and the councillors couldn't really discuss anything publicly, but they suggested that CN was completely inflexible about schedules and their fee structure. CN is a publicly traded company and the biggest shareholder is Bill Gates. The stock's done great over the last couple decades, so at least Canadian taxpayers have contributed to something by selling off their infrastructure!
I think the railways themselves should be publicly run because they are a natural monopoly. The users could be private or public, and should bid on track time and priorities. All of the bidding and scheduling should be public information.