>>>> By the way, just because FIG owns railroads doesn't mean the RRs have a call on other assets of the company. I'm
>>>> sure they have it structured so the RRs have their own little piece of the pot and no more.

More likely,it was the other way around. The parent company called upon the railroad's assets (why else would a "Quick return artist" buy up a railroad in the first place). The liquid assets of the railroad thus quickly disappeared into the parent's coffers soon after the take over. Without those assets, the railroad cannot re-capitalize; as any business must periodically do. They might even be forced to defer maintenance on the track, or even some tunnels.

It also happened during the building of the transcontinental railroad, which nearly didn't get finished because of it. During the "Credit Mobilier Scandal", millions in federal construction grants and other investments given to the UP to subsidize the building of the Transcontinental Railroad, were sucked up instead by parent corporations (bankers, of course) of the construction companies involved.

It has happened a thousand times since. More recently, "Santa Fe Industries" bought control of the Southern Pacific, including millions of land grant acres and other assets. Those land grants were intended by congress to subsidize the railroad in perpetuity. Ha Ha!

Of course, that blatantly anti-competitive merger was disallowed and the Southern Pacific was ordered divested (it was probably known the buyers all along - they counted on it). Guess what - the lands grants and all other assets remained with the parent, leaving the railroad bereft. It only took a few years of the resultant deferred maintenance and re-capitalization for SP's financial collapse to be complete.

It even happens rampantly today (perhaps even in a majority of contracts) in public transportation construction, where the parent company of the contractor bleeds it dry, causing its bankruptcy or default on the contract. Thus there are no assets to be had when the inevitable lawsuits fly - when the public agency finds out what it paid for didn't get done according to contract. Guess who does still have those assets - though untouchable!

Perhaps that fact is related to why most California public transportation projects cost more than ten times what private railroads pay per mile of track.

Obviously, among all the other reforms we might need; we also need "Corporate Law Reform".

So who do I vote for to get that? ? ? ? ?

No one I know!

OPB