If you are regular reader of this column or a participant at any level in the capital equipment side of railroading, you are aware of the current equipment surplus faced by the nation's rail equipment operating lessors. What's behind it? A variety of things. A lot has to do with the apparent overbuilding in the last, few years. Other reasons are buried in the economics of what we, as an industry, ship. The point is, however, that builders and operating lessors are in one of their periodic slumps. When this happens, it's usual for rail operators to gorge themselves on the misfortune, earned or not, of their equipment suppliers. And they will do so with a vengeance. I am not suggesting that rail-car end-users not take advantage of the situation. If I were trying to lecture on this point, railroaders would be the first to point out, quite correctly, that when the shoe is on the other foot, their railcar suppliers drink fully from the trough of price increases driven by shortages.
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