Competitive access to North American rail

A long series of consolidations has increased the number of captive rail customers, and the Staggers Act of 1980 permits railroads to enter into confidential contracts with shippers. While the resulting price discrimination helps the railroads financially, it tends to distort the location of economic activity. A set of rules that increased competitive access to rail could reduce the industry's ability to pay for needed improvements, but a shift in tax-subsidy policy favoring rail vis-a-vis road, air, and water might reasonably accompany such rules. The ones suggested here would mainly separate control of rail infrastructure from that of vehicles and break up giant geographic concentrations of control over roadway.