Are two major railroads sufficient, nationally?

[Devil's Advocate]

Then the government steps in and "You all are TOO BIG TO MERGE we will have none of that" - Monopoly and Anti-Trust issues !

When was the last time a railroad merger was prevented on antitrust grounds?

Not quite the same...if the BNSF tried to buy one of the Eastern roads, the government wouldn't let the other Eastern road get into a bidding war for it...they would only let the other Western road buy the other Eastern road (or vice versa). That way competition would be preserved.

What competition? Most customers have only one railroad to choose from if they have any at all. We've already merged most of the competition into oblivion but here you are cheerleading another round for some reason.

More “seamless” for customers. Only have to deal with one provider, for most movements. For railroad, less top administration. And greater economy of scale for purchasing.

Who is asking for this? Past mergers have raised prices, harmed performance, burned customers, and left those that remained with terms and performance that eventually pushed most of their shipping to the trucking industry. The heavy bulk and manifest freight markets are being strangled by the class one railroads. If anything we should try nationalizing one of the private carriers to see if that can bring lost customers and truck freight back over to rail again. Allowing even more mergers isn't going to fix anything the last dozen mergers was unable to solve.

 

[railiner]

Fun fact the Rock Island actually kept dining car service on their trains because even despite the ridership it was cheaper to operate the diner than lay the staff off due to the labor contracts they had. When the diner was sidelined due to sill corrosion (structural corrosion) they parked them on one of the tracks in La Salle St. and operated them as a diner for passengers waiting on commuter trains to Joliet.

Yes...the "Quad City Rocket", was a nice "pocket streamliner" for a while...they also had an ex-C&O, ex D&RGW, dome lounge parlor car, the "Big Ben", leased from Deporter-Butterworth Tours for a while. It sometimes ran on the "Peoria Rocket".
Lots of good photo's here...
http://trainweb.org/DOMEmain/picCO1875D.jpg
I too, recall The Rock's so-called "Track One" restaurant in La Salle Street station. Besides the diner, they had a lounge car serving as a bar, and where you would enter, and await a table in the diner. It was an authentic railroad operated dining car, even down to the traditional requirement to write out your order on a check. Food was pretty good on the two times I tried it...

 

[Seaboard92]

Yes...the "Quad City Rocket", was a nice "pocket streamliner" for a while...they also had an ex-C&O, ex D&RGW, dome lounge parlor car, the "Big Ben", leased from Deporter-Butterworth Tours for a while. It sometimes ran on the "Peoria Rocket".
Lots of good photo's here...
http://trainweb.org/DOMEmain/picCO1875D.jpg

Ben Butterworth the son of the original owner of the Big Ben still owns the car. If I remember what he has said about it correctly it is in a warehouse somewhere in Iowa. It is still in good condition from my understanding.

 

[railiner]

Ben Butterworth the son of the original owner of the Big Ben still owns the car. If I remember what he has said about it correctly it is in a warehouse somewhere in Iowa. It is still in good condition from my understanding.

Interesting history to that car.

 

[sttom]

If the government was going to do something to change how the rail industry worked in this country, buying up their rights of way and actually allowing competition would do more in that regard than just letting there be only 2 railroads. A duopoly that has few overlapping markets isn't competition, especially given that most railways are in a managed decline mentality. At best it would put off one of them dying for a decade or two without trying to solve the problem of them having to maintain their own infrastructure, for the the public good, while paying taxes on them.