Alternative Energy Blues

https://youtu.be/2Qo8O3vWZwc For 2018 my estimate is $2 million per mile for single rail.  My estimate for two rails is $2,640,000 to $3 million per mile. A railroad bridge in Minnesota in 2010 with a length of 575 feet cost $14 million.

https://youtu.be/oziSR8nOznA Nice enough.  They never address the financial or political hurdles related to a Hyperloop.  A major problem we've faced is Southwest Airlines contractors opposing even remote competition from high speed rail or our low speed rail. I had hoped that someone would have the courage to state whether any of the existing high speed rail systems are profitable or how much they cost to keep going.  China's high speed rail is built for political reasons, to create jobs, to control or overwhelm remote ethnic minorities (think of the development of American railroads to control or destroy American Indian nations), and to improve overall economic development. To avoid competion with the Texas Central Railway, we propose a passenger service from Houston to Shreveport, Shreveport to Dallas, Dallas to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma City to Little Rock, Little Rock to Shreveport route. We would require extensive public decision making, input, and review to...

https://youtu.be/0JDoll8OEFE

https://youtu.be/1WKLskz1w9k https://youtu.be/iJCDDmBPdHs Crush the Street with guest Jeff

CSX Transportation has finalized property sales totalling $53 million.  Of that amount $43 million involved the sale of two shortline railroads and the conversion of two leased roads to formal sales.  Properties of some other type were sold totalling $10 million. Earlier this year, 2018, CSX did a review of 8,000 miles of their approximately 21,000 miles of railroad to determine if it would be better to keep or sell. According to Trains Magazine and Progressive Railroading, CSX decided to put up six shortlines totalling 850 miles.  So, four of those shortlines are still up in the air. One delay in closing the sales on those remaining four, might be that the various shortline conglomerates in the bidding might go from being Class II companies to Class I companies.  Apparently reclassification would cause their costs to go up as far as financial reporting and federal regulations are concerned. 

Throughout these essays I make a number of assertions.  Maybe the point of this series is to do the research to prove or disprove these claims below. Please note that railroads in the United States are overwhelmingly privately owned, for profit corporations.  They're freight companies that allow the federally owner passenger service, Amtrak, to run on their lines.  1) My main allegation is that no brand new, never before seen, railroad has been allowed by law in the United States since 1890. 2) The Class I railroad corporations generally influence all railroad legislation and legislators through campaign donations, honorariums, and other forms of legalized bribery. 3) While the Surface Transportation Board places some limits on American railroad businesses it appears to suffer from regulatory capture. (These two claims above make the railroad industry and government oversight organizations no different than many other federally regulated companies in the US.) ...

When I think of the life and legacy of the 21st Century railroad empire builder and most visible proponent of precision railroad scheduling, E. Hunter Harrison, I consider the final weeks of the life of William the Conqueror.   That railroad baron wannabe spread his STD, that is, Surface Transportation Disorder of Precision Scheduled Railroading, PSR, from CN to Canadian Pacifice railroad and finally to CSX Transportation.  We could have hoped it stopped there but no.  PSR is now spreading to Union Pacific. Here's a definition of Precision Scheduled Railroading, PSR, from Progressive Railroading "PSR is designed to improve service reliability, boost operating efficiency and reduce network complexity by shifting the operational focus from moving trains to moving individual rail cars. The goals: minimize car dwell time and classification events, reduce locomotive requirements and balance train movements to improve crew and asset utilization." Here's what it rea...

So CSX Transportation has been selling off six parts of itself this year, 2018, to create new shortline freight railroads.  So, how come no analyst is pointing out the revenues from those sales?  And why is the amount of debt on their books growing? The company looks way profitable.  If I was an owner, investor, or analyst, then I would say CSX Transportation railroads are buy or hold. Just tell us why the quarterly reports don't mention the sales of these six shortlines? And what's the cause of the increasing debt on their books?  Could the debt be from getting bank loans to make stock buybacks?  That certainly boosts the value of a company's remaining stock.  Have the increased revenues and the amazing earnings ratio of CSX be due to sales of these shortlines rather than increased volume of business and more efficient use of resources? The sales aren't clearly listed and the debts aren't clearly explained. I Come From the L and of Enron Perhaps...

Finally.   I received a copy of "Solutionary Rail: A people-powered campaign to electrify America's railroads and open corridors to a clean energy future." Take a look at their website. http://www.solutionaryrail.org A large group of people have researched and written about almost everything that I have.  It's by Bill Moyer.  Based on the introduction by Bill Mckibben and the table of contents, he's come to the same conclusions that I have. I just started reading, skimming, and scanning the book this evening while my friend Scarlet O'Hara does her taxes.  A special thanks to IHOP for being a home for the studious.  Scarlett got us a table next to the plug. Below are a few of the Chapters and bullet points.  "Chapter 2 - Rail Electrification's Many Advantages Rail's Efficiency Advantages Leveraging Rail Electrification to Grow Renewable Energy Electrification Reduces Air Pollution and Highway Deaths Chapter 3 - Restoring A Balanced Transpo...

Long Island Rail Road derailment underscores decay of New York’s transportation infrastructure

Report: Lower-income New Yorkers suffer the greatest mass transit hardships

New report exposes unsafe working conditions at Long Island Rail Road

CSX continues cuts, botches relocation of train dispatchers

Why aren’t trains evacuating people from the path of Hurricane Irma?

Railroads push cost-cutting and contract concessions

CSX railroad closes and downgrades major facilities

Railroad workers at CSX face the dictates of Wall Street

Governor declares “state of emergency” for New York City transit system

“Slash and burn” CEO takes helm at CSX Railroad

https://www.facebook.com/publiccitizentx/videos/249371459101631/ Discussion on electrifying the Port of Houston freight transfer system to  improve efficiency and reduce pollution.

Rail News - STB wants regular updates from UP as it phases in scheduled railroading. For Railroad Career Professionals : Railroad industry news about: Surface Transportation Board, STB, Union Pacific Railroad, UP, Lance Fritz, precision scheduled railroading, Unified Plan 2020, STB Chairwoman Ann Begeman, Vice Chairwoman Deb Miller, CSX. From the editors of Progressive Railroading Magazine

https://youtu.be/vW5w6shC4Ak Here's a group, Solutionary Rail, at http://www.solutionaryrail.org in Washington state that's working towards the same ideal that we are.  This is a link on YouTube is an extended interview which includes their four minute video.

Why I'm in Business So what do you think I'm in business for, my health? Actually, yes.  I'm in business for my health.  I'm trying to stay alive and help everyone stay alive and help everyone be healthy.  I'm in the business of working with everyone to save ourselves and our planet. The 1999 stage play, and 2013 movie, Charlie Victor Romeo, reenacts almost verbatim the cockpit recordings of six air fatalities or survivor incidents. At no time does the crew simply throw up their hands and give up.  They fight to solve their problems to the end, whether they succeed or die.

The Corporate Deathwish of American Railroads The Class I railroads, the biggest, baddest dogs in the junkyard, don't care if passengers are inconvenienced.  They don't care that fewer businesses are served.  They don't care that their industry is shrinking. The American railroad industry has a corporate deathwish.  I wouldn't mind so much if they were only offing their evil selves.  Unfortunately, they're taking the rest of us humans down with them.  Burn down the planet so long as they make a short term profit. Their core problem is that they only look like they're profitable.  Running a railroad efficiently and effectively doesn't make a profit.  They make money hand over fist by holding monopoly on a territory and keeping others out.  They also make money through corporate stocks, bonds, and tax subsidies, and more. How Did Those Soulless Corporations Drag Us Straight to Hell? No brand new, never before seen railroads have been allow...

At the very beginning of my research I noticed that the railroad men were a rather onerie bunch.  .  The nicest people in the industry have been lawyers.  I also found out that they have no interest in making sales, getting more money for the industry as a whole or their own companies, specifically. American railroads are an industry with a deathwish.  I verbally imagined ways to address the extensive list of safety and velocity improvements mentioned in the 2016 Railroad Plan for Texas.  No interest.  They tried to divert my attention from that list by claiming that they invest billions of dollars in their roads and they make considerable profit doing it.  The list of safety concerns in the Plan doesn't have anything to do with direct return on investment.  Retirees from the railroad industry told me that making money in railroads means keeping expenses down and/or cutting costs.  So from the people with the most experience, th...

This project proposal provides direct, productive, real, and transparent access to a portion of the money created in 2008 to bailout the United State's major banks and national level corporate institutions. Presently, private infrastructure investment follows federal infrastructure investment, but federal, civilian support has been absent. Our corporation provides direct and indirect high quality employment and temporarily substitutes for federal infrastructure investment. We achieve this by issuing taxable private, corporate bonds with implied or actual federal government endorsement. Our  Group’s  Goals Our group buys a short line railroad East of the Mississippi from CSX Transportation. We operate both freight and passenger service within the same organization.  Currently the leading, major railroads provide just freight service with the federal government agency, Amtrak,  providing passenger service.  While we contract with Amtrak, primary...

After prompting from a Senator's staff and a spokesperson from a financial source, Trans Texas Railroad Reconstruction, LLC has made an informal, but direct offer to buy CSX Transportation. Our hope is to serve the passengers, businesses, communities, and worker owners in ways that make life better for all concerned, in the most transparent, efficient and effective ways possible, with an eye towards reducing pollution and, lowering the costs of transit, and transportation for our country. Lawyers and negotiations come next. *** Everything about CSX's numbers make it a buy or hold stock.  It pays dividends.  They've done stock buy backs. CSX's  stock price is stable or rising.  Wall Street loves this company.  Despite changes in leadership over the past ten years they've consistently moved toward some magical 60% operating ratio, cutting costs every way possible.  They've been making every move to improve shareholder value. Their leadership has ...