Hi,
Sorry for the confusing wording. What I was meaning, the time machine of the railroads that were king in the 1800s was overtaken by the time machine of the airplane (implying but not explicetly stating c 1930s).
Post 9/11/2001, there was a significant drop in face to face meetings. The economy became very sluggish despite the many who claim it was in good shape. The definition of a roaring economy changed. I lost my job in 2004 and have not gotten another since. Health (brain tumor may have been the issue) concerns may have prevented me from getting any return calls on all job queries. So the drop in face-to-face meetings might have changed.
Quote
The economics of airlines are very complex and are affected by so many other factors, both internal and external that putting it down to one thing is simply not true.
Same is true for railroads. The point I was trying to get across that the value of a set is zero upon a departure and the revenues of short hauls (train or plane) does not support long distance pysical plant. For the train it is long distance tracks. For planes it is not as costly - they do not have to build the air through which to fly the plane. Keeping a tickiting spot in St Louis while the short hauls being flown from Pittsburg to New York and Denver to LA with no traffic stopping in St Louis is an expense to the airline for no revenue.
The same goes for a short haul Chama-Cumbres and Antonito-Big Horn with little use of Cumbres-Big Horn section would cause a push to remove the middle section. Same went for the Alamosa-Durango line. Chama-Antonito had a possible self supporting reason to exist. Durango-Silverton was self supporting. Durango-Chama was abandoned.
Food for thought.
Doug vV
