Regulation of Freight Railroads in the Modern Era: 1970 - 2010

The fundamental tension between the freight railroads' network economics and economic regulation has never been resolved. Lip service has been paid to declining marginal costs and Ramsey pricing, but the actual practice of economic regulation has not coped with the economic dilemma. This paper relates the trials and tribulations of railroad regulation from the perspective of a participant that has seen the struggle both as a regulator and a regulatee.