On 29-Jun-06, at 12:58 PM, Abhijit Menon-Sen wrote:
If company A is overfilling trains, that creates an opportunity for
company B to win customers over to itself by offering better service.
How would it do that without having to lay a duplicated set of tracks?
(No, really, it's a serious question.)
So it would lay duplicated tracks, as happened in the US when the first
transcontinental railroads were being constructed. Or maybe company
C would own the tracks and rent them to both company A and company B.
Additionally, in a free market, there'd be more competition from many
other
modes of transit - sky-trains, low-cost flights, bus lines, etc, any
of whom
could deliver a better user experience at a comparable or lower cost,
which still puts pressure on rail company A to spruce up its act, even
if there's no rail company B competing with it on a certain route.
Also, if rail company A has interests in other industries, shoddy
service
in rail service could damage its reputation (and consequently market-
share)
in those other areas as well.
#!
