I thought I would offer my own assessment after decades of third person omniscient in the rail industry. This is one of the ways they drive off the less profitable traffic. It’s all a margins game. It has nothing to do with precision. It’s a focus on moving higher profit margin traffic and shedding the traffic with lower profit margins.

Do I want my train to handle cars I make a 40% profit margin on or cars I only make a 15% margin on?

If I can drive off all the low margin traffic, I can run fewer longer trains. The trains that are left are all hauling higher margin traffic. On top of this I got rid of locomotives, cars, and the employees that were needed to handle to lower margin traffic.

Bless the Shortlines for taking up the cause…

Thoughts?