neroden
Engineer
So I want to be quite specific: transportation networks don't function when privatized.
This is why the "semi-privatization" of the gas and electric service in certain states was... nothing of the sort. The transportation network for both electric and gas remained a tightly regulated utility. The competition, the choice, was only the purchase of the gas or electricity to be injected into the network.
A parallel in rail transportation might be allowing people to attach their own train cars to regularly scheduled trains, and charge different prices for providing different on-board services. Or to bid on extra capacity which wasn't being used by the state-run rail system. Or something like that. Privatizing the core routes, as anything but a regulated and government-controlled public utility, doesn't work.
The open access operators, who bid to use any "spare" slots on the network after the slots assigned for public services have been taken, are the only thing anyone likes about the British privatization fiasco. So that shows the appropriate bounds of "privatization". Allow private companies to bid to use spare capacity on the network -- that's OK.
Private freight railroad ownership of the tracks has actually been a disaster for freight service in the US, and even Wick Moorman talked about changing the model to public track ownership.
This is why the "semi-privatization" of the gas and electric service in certain states was... nothing of the sort. The transportation network for both electric and gas remained a tightly regulated utility. The competition, the choice, was only the purchase of the gas or electricity to be injected into the network.
A parallel in rail transportation might be allowing people to attach their own train cars to regularly scheduled trains, and charge different prices for providing different on-board services. Or to bid on extra capacity which wasn't being used by the state-run rail system. Or something like that. Privatizing the core routes, as anything but a regulated and government-controlled public utility, doesn't work.
The open access operators, who bid to use any "spare" slots on the network after the slots assigned for public services have been taken, are the only thing anyone likes about the British privatization fiasco. So that shows the appropriate bounds of "privatization". Allow private companies to bid to use spare capacity on the network -- that's OK.
Private freight railroad ownership of the tracks has actually been a disaster for freight service in the US, and even Wick Moorman talked about changing the model to public track ownership.
