Once again, UP uses the means it knows best: threats, when it comes to rail regulation. No matter how you slice it, the UP, BNSF, KCS, and others to a lesser extent are deliberately hindering the US economy by pricing out products in agriculture and carload freight to favor coal and intermodal. Now even those markets are starting to resist. In the case of intermodal, how can anyone make a case against the reality that Class I's are promoting international products over domestic. Most US domestic shipments other than coal is carload business. Yes, it is easier money handling the intermodal business, but I have yet to see where the big guys can honestly claim they are losing money on carload freight or less than 110 car grain trains for that matter. The railroads need a certain amount of scrutiny, not pre-Staggers, but somewhere in-between. On many branchlines, a few Class I's are abandoning small segments at a time to eliminate the whole over time, pricing or creating loading/unloading requirements which eliminating customers from the system unless the big railroad can dictate their shipping means. I know of certain branch lines where selling to a shortline is just a mechanism to create future abandonment. Using Rule 11 interchanges, rate restructuring, and other tactics, the big guys simply run off any business or shortlines they don't want. This is what is happening in Eastern Washington, Montana, and the Dakotas. Their own arrogence has created the mess they are now into and they are now spending millions to lobby against regulation. Millions that could go into improving their infrastructure.