Whose infrastructure?

摘要

It has been more than ten years since substantial attention began to get focused on the realities of rail transportation in the framework of a level playing field for all modes of transportation. The primary focus was to rectify the inequalities by which railroads must account for costs involved in their infrastructure. By contrast, the other modes benefit by the governmental infrastructures of the open road, the open skies, and the open waterways. It was in 1991 that a milepost decision was made by the European Community in its EC Directive 91/440 to separate the railroad infrastructure from operations amongst its member countries. However, the ink was hardly dry on that important decision and the need for alterations in the Directive itself became evident. It also was in 1991 that the U.S. government made as law its Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act, or ISTEA. It addressed the same problem and now has replaced "Efficiency" with "Equity" in the designation of the Act.