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0 pointsant6n4y ago0 comments

There's competition in the railroad market in the EU,because they want there to be a market. In particular they mandate separation of infrastructure and operation, and force rail infrastructure owners to give open access to all (for a toll, which has to be the same for all operators). Once you can't use infrastructure as a moat, competition is much more possible.

The US which only regulates rail safety but not the market, has a bunch of local monopolies and calls that a market, being in total denial that markets need to be regulated to actually allow competition.

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4 comments · 1 top-level

the-dude4y ago· 3 in thread

Are there any indications that a market for rail is actually more efficient?

eitland4y ago

Maybe not yet, but as someone who lived through the annoying breakup of the telecom monopoly in Norway I'd never ever go back.

I guess this will be the same.

In 1998 I remember having to dial 1521 or something before the number I was planning to dial to use the cheaper minutes with the competitor. I also remember having to learn to use 8 digit numbers for everyone instead of using 5 digit numbers locally.

Annoying, but forgotten 4 years later when you didn't have to prefix numbers anymore and we got cell phones with contact lists.

Same will happen with rail I guess. Annoying today, but I guess 4 years from now no one on their right mind will ever want to go back.

Oh, BTW, the same with the mail monopoly. A lot of complaints, but the result is I can now get my packages shipped overnight. I literally contacted my broadband provider on chat a Sunday afternoon during the last 30 days and had a new modem in my mail as I woke up the next morning.

No way that could have happened with the old telecom and mail monopolies in place.

Ericson23144y ago

It's not! One of the end results is taking trains across national borders is way more annoying than it should be. That in turn I believe has lead to warped statistics on the viability of rail for long distances!

ant6nOP4y ago

International passenger rail is a bit of a niche of the overall rail market, but if you compare north America to Europe here, Europe is doing much better.

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