On Tue, 3 Oct 2023, dan via Nnagain wrote:

>>> The U.S. railroads were natural monopolies. They were given massive land
>> grants to build out. They ran as private companies for about one century.
>> They lost their monopoly position after third generations who inherited
>> them used these monopolies to price guoge government during WWI and WWII.
>> That's part of the reason most DoT type govt agencies today are "roads &
>> airports" vs "roads, rail & airports." Rail has been re privatized and
>> under invested - perfect for Warren Buffett but no so good for everyone
>> else nor for the climate.
>>
> I don't know that this is an appropriate conclusion.  I don't think that
> any railroads were monopolies  until the government gave out land grants
> and monies to build those monopolies and now they are absolutely government
> backed monopolies.  Yes, railroads gouged for use of their lines, but that
> was more price collusion than monopoly.

They were monopolies within their area of operation pretty quickly. the time of 
railroads competing to the same places was extremely short

David Lang