Re: Roseburg Forest Products Sends Letter to CORP
Author: Hipshot
Date: 03-07-2008 - 19:18
You are deluding yourself. There is absolutely nothing that RFP can do that can or will force FIT to put pour capital into a money-losing proposition. The US Constitution prohibits the taking of property (that includes money) without due process and fair compensation. Moreover, the Interstate Commerce Act prohibits railroads from engaging in non-profitable operations. All the uproar that rural Oregon – or even urban Oregon – can generate is of no more concern to FIT that flatulence in a windstorm. RaiAmerica's present strategy is to impel the public sector to subsidize a money-losing activity. But if anything even smells like it may, someday, somehow materialize that FIT believes it cannot ignore with total impunity, then they will a.) file a discontinuance of service Notice with the STB and/or b.) throw CORP into Chapter 11 bankruptcy, walk away, and let the STB and/or a federally appointed Trustee sort it all out. We don’t have access to CORP’s financial statements, but, in all likelihood, RailAmerica (and, hence, FIT) is CORP’s largest creditor and would be among the first to recover money from a bankruptcy. Not that such actions are in the public interests, but public interest is not an FIT concern.