To those of us having experience as both a Class I pricing officer and a railroad shipper, it’s axiomatic that the primary advantage of shipping by rail is price.
Now that the Class I’s have largely abandoned supplying cars, and PSR has degraded railroad service further—except for captive traffic/commodities where the Class I’s continue to escalate rates as fast as they can—to be competitive with the trucks, price is the only lever they have. Hence, the discussion here focuses on intermodal lanes that to those of us who have played the game is “proof in the pudding” of the merger’s intent to gain power and control, locking (pricing) out other railroad routes.
Fancy wording and expensive lawyer briefs dangled in front of the STB are window dressing. Ask any short line CEO or former rail shipper about “benefits” from any prior rail merger.
Class I’s have enormous political and financial power. Once any merger is approved and terms violated/ignored, the burden/cost placed on those affected to seek and gain equity/enforcement is simply too much of a hurdle for most. The discovery process alone can take years and cost millions. Meanwhile, “Rome burns.” I know; we experienced it at Maryland Midland over four years and lost. Litigation in federal courts is no timely and reasonable alternative.
Putting teeth in any merger approval is the only answer. Class I’s don’t like it because it cuts into their power and control game. But so what? The citizens, shippers, consumers, labor, short lines and regionals in the U.S. must not be sold down the river to benefit a handful of BMBYS (Big Money Boys). And the devil is in the details. Eliminating paper barriers as just one example is essential. “Macro/glorified schemes/talk/proposals” will do nothing.
My comments filed in STB Ex Parte 711 (Sub-No. 2) address this. Reciprocal switching is the detail required to make things work, up front, in practice. If the STB does not include such detail, any inclusion in any approved merger is meaningless.
Born in Baltimore and raised in Towson, Md., Paul D. Denton graduated from Duke University in 1962. In 1963, he joined the Baltimore & Ohio and through 1986 served in various marketing/finance positions with B&O, Chessie and CSX. In 1986, Denton joined Maryland Midland Railway (MMID) as Vice President Marketing & Sales. In 1987 he was elected MMID President, and in 1994 was elected CEO and President and joined the MMID Board of Directors. He retired from MMID June 2006 but served on the Board through 2007, helping to arrange MMID’s sale to Genesee & Wyoming. Denton served two terms on the Board of the American Short Line & Regional Railroad Association from 1998 to2006.
