[agere_contra]

Oh heavens yes. I work for consulting engineers in the UK, and we get our fair share of both road and rail work.

There's a fair amount of management involved per mile of road: but it pales into significance with the huge amount of safety-related maintainance per mile of rail track.

[GonzoGOP]

There's a fair amount of management involved per mile of road: but it pales into significance with the huge amount of safety-related maintainance per mile of rail track.

And the maintenance costs go up exponentially with the speed of the trains being operated and the frequency of operation. That is one of the reasons why railroads make money hauling coal at 30 mph and hemorrhage money hauling passengers at 150 mph. Passengers demand speed and frequent service. So you have to run a lot of trains on short head ways. Coal isn't so picky so you move one mile and a half long train at a time.