TRRA - Granite City, IL by d.w.davidson Via Flickr: Derelict power including Western Pacific U30B No. 3057 and UP GPs are seen on the TRRA headed for the boneyard, in May 1985.

How to replace a test cock tube on 645 EMD engine locomotive.

That sound!    Hmmmmm

Every once in a while, I see something neat and also go, “I know what that is!” -- and I don’t merely mean about the massive EMD645E3 2-stroke diesel engine!

I mean, I see Southern Pacific heritage!

I see snowsheds and summit tunnels, the Sierra, Cascades, and the Tehachapi Loop -- I. see. a. living. breathing.  tunnel motor.

For kicks and giggles, here’s my suppositional identification, which might be wrong, but there’s not a lot of surviving SD40T-2s left, sadly -- I am counting on someone to correct me if I get it wrong lol @eltristan​  @identifying-trains-in-posts-too​ @identifying-trains-in-posts​ @identifying-trains-inposts​

Southern Pacific 8515, grimey and glorious -- Speed Lettering and at some point sold to the Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis, TRRA 3001  and still going as ILSX 1310 on the leasing company, Independent Locomotive Service

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/serialThumbs.aspx?id=786174-17&mfg=EMD

After roughly 20 years of development, HrSR (higher-speed rail)* with speeds up to 110 mph will be in effect as of June 26 on Amtrak’s 284-mile Chicago-St. Louis corridor, on Lincoln Service and Missouri River Runner trains (300, 301, 302, 305, 306, 307, 318 and 319), as well as on the Texas Eagle. Trip time is reduced by 15 minutes from 90-mph run times and 30 minutes from 79-mph run times—less than two hours from Chicago to Bloomington-Normal and less than three hours to Springfield, with end-to-end St. Louis-Chicago schedules of under five hours. HrSR was a joint effort of the Illinois DOT, Amtrak and primary host Class I Union Pacific, plus numerous consultants led by WSP USA. Other host railroads on the corridor are CN, Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC), and Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis (TRRA). The project involved track upgrades, double-tracking, PTC and other infrastructure improvements. The shorter schedules, combined with new Siemens Charger diesel-electric locomotives and state-owned Amtrak Midwest Venture cars, also from Siemens, “we are completing a full makeover of this corridor service,” said Amtrak President Roger Harris. Project cost came in just under $2 billion, including $1.66 billion in funding from a 2010 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grant.

Gulf, Mobile & Ohio, St. Louis, MO, 8/1969

Chicagobound Abraham Lincoln led by E7 102-A meets TRRA transfer job on the Mississippi River bridge. St. Louis, MO, 8/24/1969. (Note the Western Pacific F Units in the background)

Terminal Railroad Association; St. Louis MO; 2/25/11 por Steve Barry Por Flickr: Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis Pillsbury Siding, St. Louis, Missouri February 25, 2011 A Terminal Railroad switch job switches the Pillsbury Siding in St. Louis.

Events 7.1

AD 69 – Tiberius Julius Alexander orders his Roman legions in Alexandria to swear allegiance to Vespasian as Emperor. 552 – Battle of Taginae: Byzantine forces under Narses defeat the Ostrogoths in Italy, and the Ostrogoth king, Totila, is mortally wounded. 1097 – Battle of Dorylaeum: Crusaders led by prince Bohemond of Taranto defeat a Seljuk army led by sultan Kilij Arslan I. 1431 – The Battle of La Higueruela takes place in Granada, leading to a modest advance of the Kingdom of Castile during the Reconquista. 1520 – Spanish conquistadors led by Hernán Cortés fight their way out of Tenochtitlan after nightfall. 1523 – Jan van Essen and Hendrik Vos become the first Lutheran martyrs, burned at the stake by Roman Catholic authorities in Brussels. 1569 – Union of Lublin: The Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania confirm a real union; the united country is called the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth or the Republic of Both Nations. 1643 – First meeting of the Westminster Assembly, a council of theologians ("divines") and members of the Parliament of England appointed to restructure the Church of England, at Westminster Abbey in London. 1690 – Glorious Revolution: Battle of the Boyne in Ireland (as reckoned under the Julian calendar). 1766 – François-Jean de la Barre, a young French nobleman, is tortured and beheaded before his body is burnt on a pyre along with a copy of Voltaire's Dictionnaire philosophique nailed to his torso for the crime of not saluting a Roman Catholic religious procession in Abbeville, France. 1770 – Lexell's Comet is seen closer to the Earth than any other comet in recorded history, approaching to a distance of 0.0146 astronomical units (2,180,000 km; 1,360,000 mi). 1782 – Raid on Lunenburg: American privateers attack the British settlement of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. 1819 – Johann Georg Tralles discovers the Great Comet of 1819, (C/1819 N1). It was the first comet analyzed using polarimetry, by François Arago. 1837 – A system of civil registration of births, marriages and deaths is established in England and Wales. 1846 - Adolphe Sax patents the saxophone. 1855 – Signing of the Quinault Treaty: The Quinault and the Quileute cede their land to the United States. 1858 – Joint reading of Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace's papers on evolution to the Linnean Society of London. 1862 – The Russian State Library is founded as the Library of the Moscow Public Museum. 1862 – Princess Alice of the United Kingdom, second daughter of Queen Victoria, marries Prince Louis of Hesse, the future Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse. 1862 – American Civil War: The Battle of Malvern Hill takes place. It is the last of the Seven Days Battles, part of George B. McClellan's Peninsula Campaign. 1863 – Keti Koti (Emancipation Day) in Suriname, marking the abolition of slavery by the Netherlands. 1863 – American Civil War: The Battle of Gettysburg begins. 1867 – The British North America Act takes effect as the Province of Canada, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia join into confederation to create the modern nation of Canada. Sir John A. Macdonald is sworn in as the first Prime Minister of Canada. This date is commemorated annually in Canada as Canada Day, a national holiday. 1870 – The United States Department of Justice formally comes into existence. 1873 – Prince Edward Island joins into Canadian Confederation. 1874 – The Sholes and Glidden typewriter, the first commercially successful typewriter, goes on sale. 1878 – Canada joins the Universal Postal Union. 1879 – Charles Taze Russell publishes the first edition of the religious magazine The Watchtower. 1881 – The world's first international telephone call is made between St. Stephen, New Brunswick, Canada, and Calais, Maine, United States. 1881 – General Order 70, the culmination of the Cardwell and Childers reforms of the British Army, comes into effect. 1885 – The United States terminates reciprocity and fishery agreement with Canada. 1885 – The Congo Free State is established by King Leopold II of Belgium. 1890 – Canada and Bermuda are linked by telegraph cable. 1898 – Spanish–American War: The Battle of San Juan Hill is fought in Santiago de Cuba, Cuba. 1901 – French government enacts its anti-clerical legislation Law of Association prohibiting the formation of new monastic orders without governmental approval. 1903 – Start of first Tour de France bicycle race. 1908 – SOS is adopted as the international distress signal. 1911 – Germany despatches the gunship SMS Panther to Morocco, sparking the Agadir Crisis. 1915 – Leutnant Kurt Wintgens of the then-named German Deutsches Heer's Fliegertruppe army air service achieves the first known aerial victory with a synchronized machine-gun armed fighter plane, the Fokker M.5K/MG Eindecker. 1916 – World War I: First day on the Somme: On the first day of the Battle of the Somme 19,000 soldiers of the British Army are killed and 40,000 wounded. 1922 – The Great Railroad Strike of 1922 begins in the United States. 1923 – The Parliament of Canada suspends all Chinese immigration. 1931 – United Airlines begins service (as Boeing Air Transport). 1931 – Wiley Post and Harold Gatty become the first people to circumnavigate the globe in a single-engined monoplane aircraft. 1932 – Australia's national broadcaster, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, was formed. 1935 – Regina, Saskatchewan police and Royal Canadian Mounted Police ambush strikers participating in the On-to-Ottawa Trek. 1942 – World War II: First Battle of El Alamein. 1942 – The Australian Federal Government becomes the sole collector of income tax in Australia as State Income Tax is abolished. 1943 – The City of Tokyo and the Prefecture of Tokyo are both replaced by the Tokyo Metropolis. 1946 – Crossroads Able is the first postwar nuclear weapon test. 1947 – The Philippine Air Force is established. 1948 – Muhammad Ali Jinnah (Quaid-i-Azam) inaugurates Pakistan's central bank, the State Bank of Pakistan. 1949 – The merger of two princely states of India, Cochin and Travancore, into the state of Thiru-Kochi (later re-organized as Kerala) in the Indian Union ends more than 1,000 years of princely rule by the Cochin royal family. 1957 – The International Geophysical Year begins. 1958 – The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation links television broadcasting across Canada via microwave. 1958 – Flooding of Canada's Saint Lawrence Seaway begins. 1959 – Specific values for the international yard, avoirdupois pound and derived units (e.g. inch, mile and ounce) are adopted after agreement between the US, the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth countries. 1960 – The Trust Territory of Somaliland (the former Italian Somaliland) gains its independence from Italy. Concurrently, it unites as scheduled with the five-day-old State of Somaliland (the former British Somaliland) to form the Somali Republic. 1960 – Ghana becomes a republic and Kwame Nkrumah becomes its first President as Queen Elizabeth II ceases to be its head of state. 1962 – Independence of Rwanda and Burundi. 1963 – ZIP codes are introduced for United States mail. 1963 – The British Government admits that former diplomat Kim Philby had worked as a Soviet agent. 1966 – The first color television transmission in Canada takes place from Toronto. 1967 – Merger Treaty: The European Community is formally created out of a merger with the Common Market, the European Coal and Steel Community, and the European Atomic Energy Commission. 1968 – The United States Central Intelligence Agency's Phoenix Program is officially established. 1968 – The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons is signed in Washington, D.C., London and Moscow by sixty-two countries. 1968 – Formal separation of the United Auto Workers from the AFL–CIO in the United States. 1972 – The first Gay pride march in England takes place. 1976 – Portugal grants autonomy to Madeira. 1978 – The Northern Territory in Australia is granted self-government. 1979 – Sony introduces the Walkman. 1980 – "O Canada" officially becomes the national anthem of Canada. 1983 – A North Korean Ilyushin Il-62M jet en route to Conakry Airport in Guinea crashes into the Fouta Djallon mountains in Guinea-Bissau, killing all 23 people on board. 1984 – The PG-13 rating is introduced by the MPAA. 1987 – The American radio station WFAN in New York City is launched as the world's first all-sports radio station. 1990 – German reunification: East Germany accepts the Deutsche Mark as its currency, thus uniting the economies of East and West Germany. 1991 – Cold War: The Warsaw Pact is officially dissolved at a meeting in Prague. 1997 – China resumes sovereignty over the city-state of Hong Kong, ending 156 years of British colonial rule. The handover ceremony is attended by British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Charles, Prince of Wales, Chinese President Jiang Zemin, and U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. 1999 – The Scottish Parliament is officially opened by Elizabeth II on the day that legislative powers are officially transferred from the old Scottish Office in London to the new devolved Scottish Executive in Edinburgh. In Wales, the powers of the Welsh Secretary are transferred to the National Assembly. 2002 – The International Criminal Court is established to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression. 2002 – Bashkirian Airlines Flight 2937, a Tupolev Tu-154, and DHL Flight 611, a Boeing 757, collide in mid-air over Überlingen, southern Germany, killing all 71 on board both planes. 2003 – Over 500,000 people protest against efforts to pass anti-sedition legislation in Hong Kong. 2004 – Saturn orbit insertion of Cassini–Huygens begins at 01:12 UTC and ends at 02:48 UTC. 2006 – The first operation of Qinghai–Tibet Railway is conducted in China. 2007 – Smoking in England is banned in all public indoor spaces. 2008 – Riots erupt in Mongolia in response to allegations of fraud surrounding the 2008 legislative elections. 2013 – Croatia becomes the 28th member of the European Union. 2020 – The United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement replaces NAFTA.

Ouverture à la concurrence du transport ferroviaire : quel modèle économique pour la France ? LA TRIBUNE

Ouverture à la concurrence du transport ferroviaire : quel modèle économique pour la France ?

 Par Michel Nakhla  |  06/04/2018, 12:40  |  2077  mots

   (Crédits : (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Check for restrictions at: http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp)

 Allemagne, Grande-Bretagne ou Italie sont déjà passées par la mise en concurrence de leur transport ferroviaire de voyageurs. 

Quels chemins ont-elles emprunté ? 

Par Michel Nakhla, Mines ParisTech.

 En Europe, la mise en concurrence du transport ferroviaire est pour bientôt : elle sera effective à partir de 2020 pour les grandes lignes et, au plus tard, en 2024 pour les lignes régionales. L'Allemagne, la Grande-Bretagne et l'Italie ont déjà ouvert à la concurrence le transport ferroviaire de voyageur au niveau national et régional, dans le cadre acté par Bruxelles. En France, pour l'instant, la SNCF Mobilité, établissement public industriel et commercial (EPIC), est toujours régie par l'article L2141-1 du Code des transports qui lui octroie le monopole de l'exploitation du transport ferroviaire de personnes sur le réseau ferré national.

Présenté le 14 mars en conseil des ministres, le projet de loi pour un nouveau pacte ferroviaire prévoit de transformer le statut juridique de la SNCF en une société anonyme (SA). Celle-ci demeurerait privée, avec des capitaux publics, tout en gardant un contrôle plus important sur la dette. Un autre changement majeur attendu dans le cadre de cette refonte est la fin du statut des cheminots pour les nouveaux embauchés.

La réforme engagée s'inspire clairement de la libéralisation des chemins de fer allemands. Cette dernière peut-elle constituer un modèle à suivre pour la SNCF ? Existe-t-il d'autres alternatives que l'alignement sur l'exemple allemand pour mener à bien la modernisation de la société de chemins de fer français ?

En finir avec les monopoles historiques : le Sherman Anti‑Trust Act

Le Sherman Anti-Trust Act de 1890 constitua la première décision pour limiter les comportements anticoncurrentiels des entreprises aux USA. Il fut utilisé pour trancher plusieurs affaires, dont la plus célèbre, United States v. Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louisen 1912, a établi les règles interdisant les pratiques concertées et les monopoles restreignant le libre accès aux infrastructures essentielles. Ces dernières sont des infrastructures non duplicables, détenues par une entreprise dominante et dont l'accès est indispensable à d'autres entreprises pour proposer leur activité sur le marché. En 1985, la Cour de justice des communautés européennes s'est appuyée sur cette logique pour exiger l'accessibilité à certaines infrastructures sous monopole afin de permettre des offres concurrentes et une amélioration de la productivité.

Au cours des années 1980, les conceptions de l'économie de marché et de la libre concurrence selon Milton Friedman sont reprises progressivement par les dirigeants politiques, qui s'appuient sur elles pour lancer des reformes de privatisations et de démantèlement des monopoles étatiques, notamment en Grande-Bretagne, aux États-Unis et au Chili. Les fondamentaux de la pensée de Friedman sont exposés dans son best-seller, Capitalisme et liberté, publié en 1962. En résumé, le rôle des pouvoirs publics n'est plus de se substituer aux entreprises ni au fonctionnement du marché. L'État doit se limiter à garantir le respect de la loi, du droit et de la propriété privée. Il doit également agir contre certains monopoles et pallier les éventuelles défaillances du marché en favorisant la concurrence. Pour Milton Friedman, les monopoles d'origine étatique doivent être limités au maximum.

Transport ferroviaire : la longue marche vers la concurrence, avec ou sans privatisation

L'idée directrice de ces réformes est de s'attaquer aux monopoles, y compris les monopoles de service public. En effet, dès lors qu'il y a monopole, l'entreprise publique échappe à la régulation par le marché : elle peut choisir ses prix, s'enrichir abusivement, ou se laisser aller à la dette et aux dépenses, n'étant pas soumise au contrôle du marché des capitaux. Le monopole national peut être aidé indéfiniment par l'État, soit par des subventions, soit par des allègements de taxes ou des prêts pour équilibrer son budget. L'absence de risque de faillite n'incite donc pas forcément les managers publics à la performance ! La contrainte budgétaire qui pèse sur le monopole est une « contrainte molle ».

Si l'on excepte la stratégie « ne rien changer », difficile à défendre face à l'ouverture du marché européen, deux modes d'organisation dominent :

·         Le démantèlement du monopole public historique en plusieurs entreprises privées concurrentes comme en Grande-Bretagne. Le Railways Act de 1993, avait déclenché la vente totale du monopole public British Rail. Aujourd'hui, pour un passager britannique, le coût mensuel moyen est six fois plus élevé qu'ailleurs en Europe et représente 14 % de son revenu mensuel, contre 2 % en France. Une augmentation de 3,6 % est annoncée pour l'an prochain, qui s'explique notamment par l'augmentation de l'inflation depuis le vote du Brexit.

·         La séparation entre une entité qui gère le réseau et une entité qui gère le transport ferroviaire des voyageurs. Ce schéma, inspiré du Sherman Antitrust Act, semble s'imposer dans les pays déjà ouverts à la concurrence comme l'Allemagne et l'Italie. En France, la SNCF Réseau gère le réseau et la SNCF Mobilités gère le transport, non encore ouvert à la concurrence.

Dans ces deux modes d'organisation simplifiés, la concurrence peut s'opérer selon deux modalités :

·         Pour le marché (open access - libre accès) : les entreprises sont en compétition pour le prix proposé, les dessertes, les fréquences, la nature du matériel roulant, les services à bord, les créneaux horaires, etc. En France, certaines lignes sont déjà exploitées de cette façon : lignes TGV, Thalys et Eurostar, Thello de nuit Paris-Venise, Thello de jour Marseille-Nice-Milan.

·         Au sein du marché (marché contestable) : une seule entreprise gère le marché, mais tout opérateur a la possibilité d'y entrer, en répondant à « un appel d'offres compétitif assorti d'un cahier des charges stipulant les obligations de service public à respecter par l'entreprise retenue ». Le Royaume-Uni est allé très loin dans cette voie après démantèlement de son opérateur historique British Railways.

Deutsche Bahn : séparer politique salariale et avantages statutaires acquis

En Allemagne, le rail est ouvert à la concurrence depuis 1994 par la création de la Deutsche Bahn Aktiengesellchaf (sigle simplifié DB), une entreprise issue de la fusion des deux entreprises ferroviaires préexistantes (la Deutsche Bundesbahn de l'ancienne RFA et la Deutsche Reichsbahn de l'ancienne RDA). La DB est une société par actions de droit privé. L'État en demeure le seul actionnaire, toutefois cela ne lui confère pas plus de droit qu'un actionnaire privé. Certains commentateurs ont qualifié de privatisation cette modification. À tort, puisqu'il n'y a pas eu de changement de propriétaire. C'est d'ailleurs la grande différence par rapport à la « vraie » privatisation britannique. Cependant, ce statut de droit privé rend possible la cession ultérieure d'une partie du capital à des investisseurs privés.

Rapidement, la DB s'est structurée en holding avec plusieurs filiales : DB Netz (réseau ferré), DB Cargo (marchandises), DB Regio (transport régional) et s'est dotée d'un directoire qui gouverne l'entreprise, sous le contrôle d'un conseil de surveillance. À terme, la dissolution de la holding n'est pas exclue. En même temps que l'entreprise DB, deux organismes administratifs ont été créés : d'une part, Eisenbahn-Bundesamt (EBA), l'autorité fédérale du chemin de fer qui a la charge d'accorder les autorisations d'exploitation et du contrôle, d'autre part Bundeseisenbahnvermögen (BEV), l'entreprise qui gère le patrimoine ferroviaire.

La BEV a pris en charge en 1994 les fonctionnaires des deux anciennes entreprises (Deutsche Bundesbahn et Deutsche Reichsbahn). Certains d'entre eux ont aussitôt quitté BEV pour signer des contrats de travail de droit privé. L'organisation proposée a permis de dissocier la politique salariale de la nouvelle entreprise DB des avantages acquis par les fonctionnaires. Si ces avantages leur restent assurés, ils n'ont en revanche pas la garantie de travailler pour la DB. La réforme permet de diminuer progressivement le nombre de fonctionnaires, car les nouveaux employés ne bénéficient plus de ce statut.

DB : une entreprise débarrassée du fardeau de la dette

Parallèlement à la réforme législative, le gouvernement fédéral allemand a décidé de transférer l'intégralité de la dette, soit 35 milliards d'euros, à la BEV. Cette décision a été inspirée par la privatisation de la Japanese National Railways (JNR), menée en 1987. La DB est ainsi libérée de la dette et retrouve une position privilégiée sur le marché. Ce régime lui permet d'ajuster ses effectifs selon les besoins et de réorganiser le travail pour une montée en compétence des salariés.

À partir de 1996, ce sont les Länders qui établissent et financent les transports en matière de liaisons locales et régionales. Elles choisissent de les assurer par chemin de fer ou non, en passant des contrats avec un ou plusieurs opérateurs, dont la DB.

La fin du monopole, mais une DB toujours leader

En Allemagne, comme en Italie, l'ouverture à la concurrence est effective sur tous les segments de marché, au niveau national et local. Près d'un quart du marché régional est assuré par des opérateurs privés. Les entreprises françaises y sont très actives. Kéolis, filiale de la SNCF, opère en Allemagne depuis 15 ans. Toutefois la concurrence est rude, et seuls les opérateurs les plus performants survivent. Fin 2014, le groupe français Transdev a ainsi dû cesser d'exploiter la ligne Leipzig-Warnemünde. Lancée en 2016 et financée par crowdfunding, la startup ferroviaire berlinoise Locomore vient de déposer le bilan sur la liaison quotidienne Berlin-Stuttgart.

En Italie, l'entreprise Nuovo Trasporto Viaggiatori (NTV) opère aux côtés de l'opérateur historique Trenitalia depuis 2012, année de lancement du premier TGV de cette entreprise ferroviaire privée détenue par des investisseurs italiens. La SNCF est actionnaire à hauteur de 20 % du capital de NTV.

Privatisation et qualité de service

En Grande-Bretagne comme en Allemagne, la suppression du monopole des compagnies nationales a amélioré considérablement le service. Selon l'Europeans' satisfaction with rail services, avec un taux de régularité à 5 min de 80 % (en 2014), les TGV français se situent devant les trains allemands.

La situation est toutefois différente pour les trains régionaux : avec un taux de régularité de 90,3 %, la SNCF se situe derrière la Grande-Bretagne (92,9 %), et loin derrière l'Allemagne (96,3 %). En outre, avec une moyenne de 40 trains de voyageurs circulant chaque jour par kilomètre de ligne et par sens en 2015, la France ne se place qu'en dixième position en Europe en matière d'intensité d'utilisation de son réseau ferroviaire, devant l'Espagne, mais derrière la Grande-Bretagne, l'Allemagne et l'Italie.

Jusqu'où aller plus loin ?

La réforme des chemins de fer en Allemagne s'est caractérisée par un très fort engagement de l'État. En plus de la Deusche Bahn, deux organismes publics ont été créés en même temps, afin de prendre en charge la gestion de la dette, le personnel fonctionnaire, le patrimoine immobilier hors exploitation et le financement de l'infrastructure. La réforme engagée en France semble s'en inspirer, tout en restant très mesurée.

Sans rentrer dans les détails techniques, en Grande-Bretagne, la réforme a été marquée au contraire par une volonté générale de désengagement de l'État. Ainsi, le réseau voyageur a été démantelé en plusieurs concessions sur une base régionale. Celles-ci ont été mises aux enchères et concédées à des entreprises chargées de les exploiter pour une durée limitée. Aujourd'hui, la quasi-totalité du réseau est gérée par une vingtaine de franchises attribuées après appels d'offres du Ministère des Transports. Dans le système ferroviaire britannique, l'investissement dans les infrastructures est confié à Network Rail (ex-Railtrack), entreprise privée propriétaire des infrastructures ferroviaires. Elle facture aux exploitants des droits d'accès pour l'utilisation des voies. Le matériel roulant a été vendu à des sociétés financières en charge de sa location.

Au-delà des exemples allemands et britanniques, les pays où la concurrence est effective ont tous mis en place des principes incontournables afin de lever les barrières à l'entrée de nouveaux opérateurs (homologation, péage, neutralité du régulateur, etc.). Nul doute qu'avec son marché de plus d'un milliard de voyageurs par an, la France sera elle aussi très attractive !

_________

 Par Michel Nakhla, Centre de Gestion Scientifique-I3 UMR CNRS 9217, Mines ParisTech

 La version originale de cet article a été publiée sur The Conversation

St Louis operator selects operational testing software USA: Class III operator Terminal Railroad Association of St Louis has selected CloudMoyo’s Operational Testing System for implementation across its network to ensure safety and regulatory compliance.

MORRIS PARK, Bronx

I hadn’t sallied up Morris Park Avenue in the Bronx for some time — not since 2006-7 or so, and on this sort of hangdog afternoon on either side of Christmas, I figured it was time.

Morris Park, located in about the exact center of the Bronx, appears to be one of the borough’s most stable and long-standing neighborhoods, but it’s only a few decades old and occupies what used to be a vast racetrack. Many of NYC’s more “stable” neighborhoods, such as Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, are located where the ponies used to run and automotive pioneers raced.

The name Morris turns up a number of times in the Bronx, primarily from two different families: the Revolution-era Morrises: Richard, who arrived in the 1660s and first settled the South Bronx; Declaration signer Lewis, US Sen. Gouverneur, and Robert, who was a three-term NYC mayor in the 1850s.

The Morris of Morris Park was John A. Morris, whose Westchester Racing Association acquired 152 acres in 1888 on the outskirts of the old Bear Swamp and built a racetrack and clubhouse there. As opulent as the racetrack was, though, it was in operation from only 1890 to 1904 (though a vestige of horse racing in the area, the Track Restaurant and Tavern, held down a corner at Eastchester and Williamsbridge Rds. some distance from the old track until 1957). The track itself burned to the ground in 1910.

In 1908, the abandoned racetrack became the world’s first formal airfield and the American Eagle, the largest dirigible in history to that time at a full 105 feet in length, was built there, and one of the first gliders, piloted by 17-year-old Lawrence Lesh, was launched from the former track that year. And, in the early-1900s, the old racetrack was also used for speed and endurance races for the newfangled automobile, and a young Swiss driver named Louis once won a gold watch for driving a Fiat a the-record 52.8 MPH there. The driver, along with his brother Gaston, competed in many road races at the Morris Park track and Gaston won at Indianapolis in 1920. Of course, it was Louis Chevrolet (1878-1941), who ironically sold his share in the Chevrolet Motor Car Company he founded in 1911 to original partner William Durant in 1915, and returned to the racing business, as well as aeronautics. (The gold watch he won had been donated by Walter Chrysler.)

It wasn’t until the 1920s that streets were cut through and houses constructed; the neighborhood was not “completed” until the 1970s!

I took the #2 train from Penn Station to East 180th Street, which has some decorative platform signboards and lamps. The lamps date back to a station renovation of about a decade ago (mid to late 2000s). If I were to stay on the #2 I would go up the el above White Plains Road to wakefield, near the border with Mount Vernon. I could transfer across the platform to the #5, which uses the right of way of a former commuter railroad, the NYW&B (see below). Instead, I walked down to Morris Park Avenue and headed east.

The building above at E. 180th St. and Morris Park Ave., which exhibits an air of faded magnificence, was constructed in 1912 as a grand Italian villa station for the New York, Westchester and Boston Railroad that operated between the Bronx and Westchester from 1912 to 1937 (it never made it to Boston) and was subsequently sold to NYC and became the Dyre Avenue Line.

It currently serves as a simple portal for the E. 180th St. station, serving the #2 and #5 trains. Though it was renovated in the last five years, receiving a new gleaming white paint job, the lowest bidder strikes again, and the paint job is already peeling off.

The clock tells correct time, but Mercury in his winged helmet looks a little displeased at that peeling paint job. Mercury, in Roman times the messenger god, was known for his speed, and the NYW&H and his symbols, including a winged staff entwined with two snakes, were used on railroad overpasses and stations.

The NYW&H, by the way, shouldn’t be confused with the New York, New Haven and Hartford RR, a little east of here, which was absorbed by NY Central. Its trackage, now used by Amtrak, is now slated to become home to the Metro-North and open 4 new Bronx stations by 2023, with the line terminating in Penn Station.

I may have said it already on previous pages, but the Morris Park station is among my favorite subway stops in the city. Its large station house was formerly home to a police precinct, and its hanging pendant lamps, exposed columns and rivets hark back to a golden age of railroading. Remember, as first conceived this line was supposed to go all the way to Boston.

There are a number of picture windows just inside the entrance. In one of them is a mounted Hagstrom map of the Bronx. The map cannot be younger than 1973, because the Third Avenue El is shown on the map. In 1973, the old el was cut back to a shuttle lien between the Hub and Fordham university; formerly, it had been bridged over the Harlem River, connecting to Manhattan’s 3rd Avenue El which ran from the 1880s to 1955.

Here the Bronx River Parkway is bridged over Morris Park Avenue and East 180th. The parkway originates in the Soundview neighborhood and runs into Westchester County and beyond. Unlike White Plains Road, this is a direct route to White Plains, north of which it become the Taconic State Parkway. Its oldest section in Westchester opened at the dawn of the Auto Age in 1907!

US Representative Paul Fino (1913-2009) was elected to the State Senate from 1946-1950 and elected to Congress in 1952, where he served eight terms, and then the State Supreme Court in 1968. He was known for his staunch opposition to Mayor John Lindsay, who he considered too moderate. In 1972, he sentenced a 17-year-old to 30 years in prison, who’d been convicted of selling one-seventy-third of an ounce of heroin.

This painted sign on Morris Park Ave. and Adams St., one of two surviving campaign ads for Fino, was likely made in the 1960s for one of his State Senate campaigns.

Morris Park Avenue is separated from the 180th Street/Unionport subway yards servicing the #2 and #5 trains by a high concrete wall. At about Melville Street you see this filled-in archway, with a small sconce above it. There’s probably a story behind this, but at this point I’d guess that it was once a simple entrance to the yards.

590 (left) to 582 Morris Park Avenue, east of Melville. 590 in particular has retained some of the appearance it had in 1940. These buildings likely date to the late 1800s.

Macca Vivero, a meat wholesaler/slaughterhouse at Morris Park Avenue and Garfield Street.

608 Morris Park Avenue, likely the best-preserved building in this stretch, has its original window lintels.

This section of the Bronx is Italian, Albanian and Latino and is chockablock with Catholic parishes. The one serving the west end of Morris Park Avenue is St. Dominic. The parish was established and the church constructed in 1925. Inscribed above the front entrance are the Latin words, Domine, dilexi decorem domus tuae (“Lord, I have loved the beauty of your house”) from the Old Testament Psalm 26.

St. Dominic merged with the nearby Our Lady of Solace parish (see below) approximately a decade ago (as of 2019).

Unionport Road is one of the Bronx’s oldest routes, running diagonally from about Bronx Park southeast to Westchester Avenue through the former Catholic Protectory, now the site of the Parkchester housing development. There was a former community known as Unionport as well, in southern Castle Hill. Unionport was a mecca for German and Irish immigrants in the mid-to-late 1890s. After the eastern Bronx was annexed to NYC in 1895 the streets were renamed for local luminaries and settlers, and Unionport was absorbed into what’s now Castle Hill.

Before the Parkchester housing complex was built in The Bronx, it was the site of the New York Catholic Protectory. The Protectory was created in 1863 as a home to care for destitute or truant children. The need for the Protectory grew out of the reality of thousands of vulnerable Catholic children wandering the streets of the city and fending for themselves. [Academic Works, CUNY]

Vatican-Mater Dei Church goods, a Catholic supplies shop across the street from St. Dominic at 1738 Unionport Road.

Van Nest Hardware, #669 Morris Park Avenue. Actually, Van Nest Avenue is a block south of here, but asection of Morris Park is also called Van Nest.

Van Nest is an old name and comes from Dutch colonial settler Pieter Pietersen Van Neste, who arrived in North America from Holland in 1647. However, the family is only honored here because of the Van Nest Land & Improvement Company, which began developing the neighborhood in 1892. Scions of the Van Nests became railroad company directors and developers but according to Bronx historian John McNamara, no Van Nest actually lived in the Bronx.

It’s likely that the owners of Happy Land Restaurant at #680 near White Plains Road are new to the Bronx; otherwise, they wouldn’t have gone near this name. The Happy Land social club, on Southern Blvd. in West Farms, was set afire by an arsonist on March 25, 1990, killing 87 — making it one of NYC’s worst massacres to date.

The wheels of technological change grind slowly in Morris Park. E.S. Business Machines, #704 Morris Park Ave., east of White Plains Rd., still promotes its typewriter repair service prominently in its display window, and the awning (which appears as if it was constructed recently) touts fax service and cash registers, as well. According to Baruch College, owner Sam Vasquez, born in 1937, has owned and operated the store in Morris Park since the 1980s, and before that in lower Manhattan. While praising the new computer technology that largely eliminated typewriters, Vasquez claims he still gets adequate business from young writers who wish to compose the old-fashioned way. I still have my 1940s Remington, and keep it around in case the grid fails. I need a new ribbon, but now I know where to find one.

A passageway at #704 appears to lead to a backhouse, a separate house on the same property that carries a different house number.

The Spanish-style Lucchese Funeral Home at Hunt Avenue was constructed in 1921. It looked pretty much the same in 1940.  Note the rock outcropping to the left of the church in the 1940 photo. It was blasted a way years ago and the space is now a parking lot for the funeral home.

Here’s a “faded ad” seen on the west side of #742 Morris Park Avenue with a fickle finger point two blocks away where there is an “office and pockets.” Any idea what this could be?

As a nod to the many Italian Americans in Morris Park, the center median of MPA is painted in the red, white and green of the Italian flag.

Our Lady of Solace Roman Catholic Church, its rectory and former parochial school (now the Bronx Charter School For Excellence) dominate MPA at Holland Avenue. The church was established in 1928, one year after St. Dominic a few blocks away, which have combined to form a single parish, with both church buildings open for worship.

Yet another Morris Park Avenue house of worship is this Seventh Day Adventist Church between Barnes and Matthews Avenues. The Adventists are a Protestant Christian sect co-founded by Ellen White in 1863.

I’ve always been fascinated with Graham Place, a dead-end alley on the north side of Morris Park Avenue between Matthews and Muliner Avenues. However, today, I found the entrance fenced off.

I wanted to get new photographs of the two residences on Graham Place, #191 and 193. There’s more than one way to skin a cat. I walked around to Matthews-Muliner Playground, and you can see them through the wire fence on the basketball court. I believe the two buildings are no longer occupied, and a new building may go up in their place, wiping all trace of Graham Place off the map.

What is Graham Place doing here, anyway? A partial answer can be found when you look at a 1902 map of Morris Park. Back then this was a planned development called Hudson Park, and two small streets were mapped: Graham and Delancey Streets. Graham Place barely survives…

…while Delancey (Place) was fully developed and is now one of NYC’s few L-shaped streets. Muliner Avenue was built on a NW-SE axis and Delancey Street was jogged over a very short block to meet it.

Formerly, when the city wanted to rename a street, they went “whole hog” and renamed the street for its entire length. For example, north of Central Park, 7th and 8th avenues were renamed Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard and Frederick Douglass Boulevard in the 1970s. Down went the 7th and 8th Avenue signs, and up went the new signs. However, so many people are honored these days that the old names are retained and just short portions of streets get what I call “subnames.” Who are the people honored? At his site, NYC Streets, Gil Tauber has the answer:

William J. Madonna (1961-2017) was educated at Northeastern University and the New England School of Law. He began his legal career in the office of the NYC Corporation Counsel. and later joined the Bronx District Attorney’s Office as a prosecutor. From 1994, he had a successful private practice in the Morris Park section of the Bronx. He represented victims of domestic violence, as well as handled divorce and family law, criminal law and real estate. He was a member of the Bronx County Bar Association, the Bronx Family Court Bar Association and served as chief counsel to then state-assemblyman, Mark Gjonaj. He represented the Tracey Towers tenant organization in their fight to block rent increases. He also represented the Friends of Pelham Parkway in its successful lawsuit to save the trees that were set to be removed for the reconstruction of Pelham Parkway.

This section of Morris Park Avenue is unusually illuminated. Double mast telephone lamps like this are fairly common in NYC, but they’re usually not paired with Bell fixtures. However Morris Park Avenue got a makeover about 15 years ago (writing this in 2019) and the DOT came up with this combination. It’s also employed on Williamsbridge Road, but I can’t find it elsewhere in the city.

The Morris Park NYPL branch at #985 MPA features a contemporary design. According to the Library it opened in 2006, making it the first library in Morris Park. Since the area was developed in the early 20th Century I found that a bit incredulous. Where’s the next nearest branch?

Further east on Morris Park Avenue, its Italian identity comes more to the fore, with fireplugs painted in red, white and green and a Patsy’s pizza outpost. The original Patsy’s was founded by Pasquale “Patsy” Lancieri in East Harlem in 1933, making it one of NYC’s earliest pizzerias. Brooklyn’s Grimaldi Pizza, of the lengthy tourist lines on Old Fulton Street, was founded by Lancieri’s nephew. The midtown Patsy’s on West 56th Street, patronized by Frank Sinatra and other celebrities, was founded by a different Patsy, Pasquale Scognamillo, and is not associated with the Lancieri Patsy’s.

The Morris Park Patsy’s sign proclaims “since 1933,” and my guess is that they’re an outpost of the original Lancieri Patsy’s of East Harlem.

This awning sign features the serif fonts, Bodoni and Baskerville.

Old-school sidewalk signs on the Morris Park Meat Market.

Brightly colored building art at Emilio’s of Morris Park at Hone Avenue. It’s reminiscent of Brazilian artist Eduardo Kobra‘s work.

This fire alarm box has been decommissioned, and someone decided to put a see-through plastic panel at the front. One wonders what will be displayed there. As a rule, New Yorkers use old alarms as trash receptacles.

Eastern Morris Park is the borough’s Hospital Row, as Jacobi Medical Center, on a vast plant between Pelham Parkway, Eastchester Rd., Morris Park and Seminole Aves., is the Bronx’ largest public hospital. Also in this stretch are the Belfer Institute, the brooding Albert Einstein College of Medicine, the airier Michael F. Price center for Genetic and Translational Medicine (shown above), Bronx Psychiatric Center, Montefiore Medical Center on Eastchester Rd. and Calvary Hospital, where my father rested comfortably in his final days.

The streets in this section of Morris park curve around, and they were once part of a late 19th Century development called Westchester Heights. Some streets were given Indian-sounding names, such as Seminole, Choctaw, and Pawnee. Much of the old development was replaced by Hospital Row beginning in the 20th Century.

Morris Park Avenue comes to an end at Bassett Avenue, which runs along the Amtrak Northeast Corridor tracks. This is the former NY, NH & H tracks that are planned to include Metro-North service to Penn Station by 2023. As a rule, commuter railroad fares are more expensive than mass transit, and it remains to be seen if new Bronx Metro-North stations will get much patronage, as residents here tend to be poorer than those living in Westchester County.

Intending to finish at Pelham Bay Park, I struck north on Stillwell Avenue, which is lined with auto repair shops. At McDonald Street I saw something unusual. Signature Chrome Customs is also a barber shop! What an unusual combination. Can anyone shed a light on this?

I hadn’t been on Pelham Parkway lately, but I see they have a new set of davit-style lamps (davits have no mast; the shaft curves over the road, with the fixture placed at the end). They have been used more and more frequently on NYC streets over the past decade.

Meanwhile, this two-angled mast, used mostly in industrial areas, has been losing out. A few pairs show up on the bridge that takes Pelham Parkway over Amtrak.

I found an ancient “arrowhead” sign pointing traffic toward the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge. A much larger green sign in back of it does the same thing.

At Stillwell Ave. and Pelham Parkway, you find this stolid structure, opened in 2016, that resembles Star Trek’s Borg Cube, or perhaps the Ministry of Truth from Orwell’s 1984. In fact, vital business is carried on here. You may be aware of the TV show 911, which follows the lives of emergency service workers in Los Angeles. This building, PSAC II,  is where over 11 million 911 calls for the NYPD and FDNY have been fielded, joining PSAC I at MetroTech Center in Brooklyn. It’s one of the most heavily protected and secured buildings in New York City, constructed of concrete clad with silvery aluminum panels. The building is nearly windowless, but workers inside—who have a stressful task—enjoy the benefits of walls in the lobby and cafeteria lined with plants that partially serve as an air filtration system.

East of Amtrak, Pelham Parkway encounters a series of spaghetti roads that connect it to both the Hutchinson River Parkway and New England Thruway. The parkway itself becomes Shore Road, running on the east end of Pelham Bay Park into Westchester County. This area is also interspersed with a number of bicycle paths that run north and east; for Bronx bicyclists, it’s a golden age.

At the Hutch and Continental Avenue, in the small Bronx neighborhood called Pelham Bay, adjoining the park, I found a mystery. It appears to be a parking lot that hasn’t been used for some time. However, the DOT lights it, there is the leaf symbol of NYC Parks, and “no trespassing” signs. (I trespassed; if you want to ticket me, I’m here.) My guess is that it’s a parking lot for Parks personnel.

It’s dueling Art Deco apartment buildings at St. Paul Avenue and East 196th Street. I can’t decide which one I like better. Other than exceptions like East 222nd and 233rd, which extend several miles deep into eastern Bronx, East 194th through East 197th in Pelham Bay are the easternmost numbered streets in the borough.

St. Paul Avenue isn’t named for the Biblical apostle — a Paul family owned the land in the colonial area.

This former public restroom can be found at Westchester Avenue and Bruckner Boulevard just west of Pelham Bay Park at the eastern end of the #6 train. It has now been fenced off, so perhaps some criminal activity was going on there.

From here I got the bus back to Flushing. An express bus runs twice an hour on the weekends, and one was just pulling in when I got to the stop. This was too good a coincidence to not take advantage.

Check out the ForgottenBook, take a look at the gift shop, and as always, “comment…as you see fit.”

1/27/19

Source: https://forgotten-ny.com/2019/01/morris-park-bronx-2/

TRRA - Brooklyn, IL by d.w.davidson Via Flickr: TRRA yard slug B562 was rebuilt from NW2 No. 562, seen at the Brooklyn Shops, in May 1985.

BNSF nutzt seine Trackage-Rechte auf UP - https://www.womanfemale.com/?p=15311 - Eine ostwärts gerichtete BNSF manifeste Fracht mit einem CEFX C44-9W und BNSF AC44CW überquert den Goshen-Radweg und die Old Alton Edwardsville Road am UP ex-New York Central im äußersten Norden von Edwardsville, Illinois. Dieser Ort ist bekannt als Wanda. Die Ironie ist, dass ich hier zu den UP-Gleisen kam, und der Zug, den ich sah, war ein BNSF-Zug, der seine Gleisrechte benutzte. :) - #Amtrak #Arcanum #autorack #awesome #bike #Bone #bridge #cat #christmas #close #Clouds #cookies #Dayton #decorations #dog #Edwardsville #EMD #fallen flags #family #fast #Ferromex #fog #fun #GE #Glen Carbon #Greenville #interesting locomotive units #Kansas City Southern #Kirkwood #lights #locomotives #LOL #Loud #Mandy #Metro East #Mitchell #Models #Monticello #my family tree #Napoleon #neat #Norfolk Southern #Ohio #overpass #pretty #railfest #rainbow #rides #Secret Place #shave & haircut #shut up #St. Louis #St. Louis Metro Area #St. Louis Terminal Railroad Association #sunset #Tracks #TRAINS #Tree #trees #Union Pacific #units #videos

5 More of Roger Puta's B&O Shots by Marty Bernard Via Flickr: B&O 1412 (E6A) with Train 2, the George Washington, leaving St. Louis between April and October 1967 (exact date unknown). Note TRRA SW1 in background.

Terminal Railroad Association; St. Louis MO; 2/25/11 por Steve Barry Por Flickr: Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis Pillsbury Siding, St. Louis, Missouri February 25, 2011 A Terminal Railroad switch job switches the Pillsbury Siding in St. Louis.

10 Benefits of Living in the City of Bellefontaine Ohio

10 Benefits of Living in the City of Bellefontaine Ohio

The City of Bellefontaine in Ohio is the seat of Logan County. For centuries before settlers founded the town, it had been the home of many Native Americans tribes including the Miami and the Shawnee. Bellefontaine was officially laid out on March 20th 1820 and has been the quintessential Midwestern small town ever since. Some of the numerous benefits of living in the city of Bellefontaine are:

Rich History

In the 1890s the city of Bellefontaine became a major railroad town, when the big four cities of Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and St. Louis made it one of their main terminals. Bellefontaine hosted the largest roundhouse between New York and St. Louis during those days. Presently, it is the center of Honda’s operations in the US and home to many Honda suppliers.

Small Communities

All over America small towns are prospering. Bellefontaine is no exception. There are charms to living in a small town, like knowing your neighbors and attending community events where a large portion of the town is present. It's got plenty of cute historical curiosities as well. For example, the city of Bellefontaine has the oldest concrete street in America, and the shortest street in the world at only 15 feet long. Living in a small town is like nothing else, and Bellefontaine personifies the experience.

Lower Unemployment Rate

The unemployment rate in Bellefontaine is 4.10% as compared to the national average of 5.20. Job growth is positive and jobs have increased by 2.56%.

Lower Cost Of Living

Compared to the rest of the country, Bellefontaine's cost of living is 18.50% lower than the national average. This makes buying a home in Bellefontaine and raising a family more affordable. You can enjoy more of life's extras when the cost of everything is lower.

Low Crime Rates

According to recent statistics, Bellefontaine is safer than 11% of the cities in the country. The violent crime numbers are very low, and fatal attacks are at 0%.

Real Estate

Speaking of homes, the median home cost in the city of Bellefontaine is $90,000, while to rent a house averages out to $700, both lower than the national average.

Public Schools

Bellefontaine public schools spend $18,316 per student. Compare this to the average school expenditure in the U.S., which is $12,383. The students per teacher ratio is 16.3.

Education Levels

Approximately 47% of the residents of the city of Bellefontaine have a high school diploma, while 22% have an associates degree. College graduates with Bachelors degrees are at 12% and some 6% have Masters degrees.

Places To Visit

The city has numerous places to visit nearby like Piatt Castles, which has been a popular destination for over 100 years. There’s also the Mad River Mountain Ski Resort, and the Ohio Caverns, which are some of the country’s most visited destinations. Whether you live down the street or across the country, you will find something special nestled in the beautiful countryside around the city of Bellefontaine.

Proximity

The city of Bellefontaine is only about an hour away from Columbus and less than 3 hours away from Cleveland. So you have all the charms of small town living, with all the amenities of the big cities within reach.

  If you're curious to explore the beautiful properties for sale in the City of Bellefontaine and beyond,

Consult with one of our award-winning real estate agents and let's get you and your family in a new home!

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Exploring the nexus between the doctrine of essential facilities and Indian competition

This article is written by Adv. Meenal Garg, Punjab and Haryana High Court, Chandigarh.

Introduction

The definition of the essential facilities doctrine (hereinafter “the doctrine”) varies greatly across jurisdictions. However, in simple terms, the doctrine implies that a player, who is a monopolist or in a dominant position, in the market, is compelled to share its facilities with other players to promote healthy competition. In other words, this doctrine means that any facility that is generated by a player if not shared with its competitors, will act as a barrier for entry in the relevant market. This doctrine assumes importance because if denial of bare minimum facilities or ‘essential facilities’ will result in wrongful denial to new entrants which in turn would hamper healthy competition.

Status of the Doctrine in the U.S. and E.U.

Position in the U.S.

The origins of the doctrine can be traced in American case law. In the case of United States v. Terminal Railroad Association, the US courts held that exclusive control over every railroad to St. Louis would be a restraint on trade. The rationale behind this judgment was that since no-member could gain entry or exit into St. Louis without using these ‘facilities’, gave such railroads a character of ‘public facility’ over which no one person can exercise monopoly. 

Ever since its inception, the doctrine has not found much appreciation in U.S. Courts. Commentators have opined that ‘the essential facility doctrine has lost popularity in the US….’ This is in light of the popular case of Verizon Comms., Inc. v. Law Offices of Curtis V. Trinko (hereinafter “Trinko”) in which the U.S. Supreme Court has hinted that the court has never expressly recognised the ‘essential facilities’ doctrine. In this case, an action was brought against Telecom Company Verizon alleging that Verizon had failed to share its network resources for entry into market. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to expressly recognize the essential facilities doctrine and held that the same would be applicable only if no statutory provision is available. In the present case, since the dispute was covered under the Telecom Act, the court refused to apply the essential facilities doctrine. 

It is worthwhile to mention here that the doctrine was originally developed to establish liability under Section 2 of the Sherman Act which prohibits monopolization of Trade. But after the Trinko case, there is no primary role of the doctrine under U.S. law and it has been accorded a subsidiary role to establish liability under the Sherman Act.

Position in E.U.

As compared to the U.S., the essential facilities doctrine has found greater acceptance in E.U. The doctrine was expressly first dealt in the Sealink Case. In this case, Sealink was the port authority of the Holyhead port which was providing ferry services between the United Kingdom and Ireland. Only the Holyhead port was providing such services and there was refusal to provide access to port services to B&I. While allowing such access, the Commission observed:

Even where the operator of an essential facility is required to provide access of non-discriminatory terms, interim measures to enable a new competitor to enter a market require stronger justification than measures maintaining the situation of an already established competitor.

Jones and Sufrin have opined that the doctrine has found recognition in EU in lieu of liberalization. They opine that in absence of the essential facilities doctrine, it would not have been possible to duplicate facilities required in sectors like telecom etc. which previously enjoyed the status of statutory monopolies. Thus, in such cases, the new entrants in these sectors could avail the option of this doctrine to gain access to those facilities which were previously exclusively under the control of the state. 

From the above state of affairs, it is clear that the doctrine was liberally applied by EU as a measure of necessity. Presently, even the EU courts have raised the standards of determining an essential facility particularly in the infamous case of Oscar Bronner GmbH & Co. KG v. Mediaprint. In this case, Mediaprint, a newspaper publisher with market share of about 50% had developed a unique home delivery paper distribution network. On the other hand, Oscar Bronner who had market share of 4% alleged that he is entitled to access the distribution network of Mediaprint which is an essential facility for distribution of newspaper. The court while setting high standards of applying the doctrine held that the distribution network is not an essential facility as there are other means of distributing newspapers via shops, post offices etc. This ruling implies that holding a dominant position is no longer sufficient to establish liability under this doctrine and other factors like indispensability of the facility etc. need to be taken into account. 

Thus, it can be said that the contours of the doctrine have been considerably narrowed down on both sides of the Atlantic. The visible implication from the above discussion is that the two jurisdictions with the most developed competition law jurisprudence across the globe have not had a very pleasant experience with the doctrine.

Doctrine of Essential Facilities and India

Silent Stance of CCI

Competition law in India is still at a nascent stage. While the Indian Supreme Court is yet to apply the essential facilities doctrine in practice, there is ample scope in Indian competition law for the application of this doctrine. For instance, Sec. 4(2)(c) of Competition Act, 2002 (hereinafter “the Act”) makes it illegal for an enterprise to abuse its dominant position that results in denial of market access. The issue has come up before the Competition Commission of India (hereinafter “CCI”) in popular cases like Shamsher Kataria vs.  Honda Siel Cars India Ltd, Turbo Aviation  Pvt. Ltd. vs. Bangalore International Airport Ltd., however, the Commission has not expressly ruled upon the same. 

An interesting aspect with respect to India is that most essential facilities are governed by some statutory or regulatory framework. For instance, the National Telecom Policy, 1994, which has been in the limelight for quite some time, provides for framework for licensing of the spectrum which is an essential facility for the telecom sector. Similarly, there exists framework for licensing in sectors like pharmaceutical, oil and gas, electricity etc. Thus, by applying the Trinko rule, the doctrine cannot be applied in cases covered by some statutory framework which have to be decided in terms of the legislative policy.

The concept of essential facility was first considered by CCI in case of Arshiya Rail Infrastructure Ltd. vs. Ministry of Railways (hereinafter “Arshiya case”). In this case, the contention was that CONCOR, a PSU, was denying access to terminals and sidings, which were exclusively owned by it to private container train operators. The informants had argued that such facility was ‘essential’ infrastructure facility for freight services. CCI while denying such contention, made the following observations with respect to essential facilities doctrine: 

The essential facility doctrine is invoked only in certain circumstances, such as existence of technical feasibility to provide access, possibility of replicating the facility in a reasonable period of time, distinct possibility of lack of effective competition if such access is denied and possibility of providing access on reasonable terms.

Finally, the Commission held that such facilities are not essential facilities because the same can be developed by informants (private entities) at their own cost as there is no barrier on the same.

Applying the Doctrine in Indian Law

As already seen, CCI has not expressly dealt with any case of the doctrine except in Arshiya case. This leaves room to speculate as to how the doctrine can be applied in India. Furthermore, assuming that the doctrine is applied in India, the next step would be to circumscribe the application of the doctrine.

Refusal to deal: It is possible that the doctrine may be dealt under the norm of “refusal to deal”. However, the difference between refusal to deal and the essential facilities doctrine is that while the former presupposes existing business relationship between the dominant firm and its competitors, there is no such prerequisite in the latter.  To elaborate, suppose A is a dominant firm having the arrangement to provide access to B to a particular facility (owned by A) for say supply of some goods. Now it may so happen that sometime in future such a right is refused. Such a case would be covered in case of refusal to deal by a dominant firm. On the other hand, essential facilities doctrine is usually applied in cases where new entrants are denied access to the marketplace by denying provision of essential facilities owned or controlled by a dominant entity.

Strict Application of Competition Act: At this juncture, it is important to discuss the concept of ‘abuse of dominant position’ as defined under Sec. 4 of the Act and its relationship with the essential facility doctrine. It is an accepted principle of competition law jurisprudence, that dominance by itself is not a violation of competition law; however, a special responsibility is conferred upon the dominant firm with respect to other firms. Such special responsibility of not abusing dominant position should not be taken as the source for liberally applying the doctrine. Lahiri and Sivakumar have opined that the courts, as well as CCI, need to exercise precaution while interpreting the open language of Sec. 4. The evidence for this argument can also be found in the unpleasant experiences of U.S. and E.U. discussed earlier.

Lessons learnt from EU and US: Highlighting the difference between U.S. and Indian law, Malik has opined that in the U.S., the right of ownership of a facility vests exclusively with the enterprise that has created the facility. On the other hand, in India, the innovator enjoys exclusive right of usage and after expiry of such right the facility is transferred to the government. This implies that the strict approach towards the essential facility doctrine as adopted in the U.S. is not per se applicable in India. Furthermore, it can be easily seen that the Indian competition law is more influenced by the European law and thus, there is a likely possibility that Indian competition law may move on the lines of European law as opposed to the norms set by American law. This, however, is a distinction without a difference. Today, both these jurisdictions have set high standards for the application of the doctrine, thereby according it a backseat role.

Role of IP law: Quite often, the essential facility doctrine is discussed with respect to the IP laws of a country. Ravichandran while commenting upon the Indian competition and IP law regime has opined that the relevant sections of the two laws confer broad powers on the CCI to deal with patent law cases. It is noteworthy to mention here that Indian competition law does not provide an IP defence to abuse of dominant position. However, it is an acknowledged fact that competition law is framed keeping in mind the special rights granted by Intellectual Property. Therefore, as long as the right to use a patent is granted on reasonable terms, the essential facility doctrine will not come into play. This is in lieu of the fact that innovators should be given due benefits for their innovations. 

Formulation of Regulations: Bajaj and Sharma have opined that until now the doctrine has been invoked by CCI on an ad hoc basis and opine that the Commission should exercise its power under Sec. 64(1) of the Competition Act to lay down a policy regarding the same. In response, while the author agrees with such a solution, it is imperative that CCI does not lose sight of the fact that the doctrine should be applied only in extreme situations where other provisions of the Competition Act do not apply. 

Conclusion

The reluctance shown towards the application of the doctrine is due to the difficulty in determining whether a facility is essential or not and whether there exists a general duty to share this facility with others. Considering the fact that India is promoting innovation, CCI cannot liberally exercise this doctrine. To paraphrase Muller and Rodenhausen, the easy way of using the competitor’s facilities by taking recourse to essential facilities doctrine is not necessarily the antitrust way.

It has been opined that Indian courts should follow the examples of U.S. and E.U. and should generally refrain from expressly invoking this doctrine. Furthermore, Indian competition law is a self-sufficient law and it is only in exceptional cases, where the express provisions do not provide a satisfactory solution, the doctrine can be employed to discharge the initial burden of proving abuse of dominant position by an enterprise. 

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Nice Credit File pictures

Various good credit history images i came across:

Image from web page 7 of “The US Legion Weekly [Volume 4, No. 14 (April 7, 1922)]” (1922) Image by Web Archive Book Images Identifier: americanlegionwe414amer Title: The American Legion Weekly [Volume 4, No. 14 (April 7, 1922)] 12 Months: 1922 (1920s) Authors: American Legion. National Headquarters Topics: American Legion periodicals Publisher: American Legion Contributing Library: The American Legion Nationwide Headquarters Library Digitizing Sponsor: LYRASIS Members and Sloan Foundation

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Text Appearing After Image: Horatius gets credit for the bridge-holding Casabianca features perpetuated his title together with purple chevron. And it also oper-ates from the strong competition ofnumerous counter tourist attractions. A citypost, or club, or lodge that remainsalive has cause of its vitality. The tiny town post might need nopress broker because every individualmember is his very own press agent. Butthe big city post that doesn’t knowthe utilizes of promotion speedily finds thatit is composed of a commander, an adju-tant, and some vacant chairs.The films are way too close at hand andthe cabaret just about to happen prom-ises a lot better than the report of this com-mittee on finance. In virtually every town there is at leastone newspaper which offers a columnat reported periods for publicationof American Legion development. Take itfrom the editors of those departments,despite laige variety of articles and ex-tensive memberships, it will always be alarge task to get sufficient development to fill thecolumn. Lots of post comes to the editor.Most from it get a hold of

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Image from page 373 of “yearly report of administrators regarding the Wabash Railroad Co., for the fiscal 12 months closing ..” (1890) Image by online Archive Book Images Identifier: annualreportofdi18991906waba Title: Yearly report of directors for the Wabash Railroad Co., for financial year ending .. Year: 1890 (1890s) Writers: Wabash Railroad Topics: Wabash Railroad Railroads Publisher: St. Louis : Woodward & Tiernan Print. Co. Adding Library: Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

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Text Appearing Before Image: ,068 80 Cost Of Road & gear (1) 5,335,419 36 3,882,500 00[ ,452,919 36Supplies and products readily available CashonHand Investments in shares and Bonds (2) Sundry Accounts Collectible-Due from Agents From U. S., Carrying Mails.. Pacific Express Co Sundry Railroads and Indi-viduals BUls Receivable Advances Quick Freight Lines Account Working Fund Advances on Account real-estate in St. Louis Miscellaneous (3) 1,244,803 46987,034 96 1,553,020 34 520,891 43179,975 7961,621 59 613,497 2053,239 27 43,004 74 29,120 8843,593 41 2,834,91174;., 61,364 27 5,031 64 399,135 85 LIABILITIES. Typical Stock Preferred Stock Bonds (4) Interest because of Interest Accrued, not Due Dividends Debenture Bonds,Series A due Sundry Accounts Payable-Vouchers and Pay Rolls Sundry Railroads and Indi-viduals Taxes Accrued, perhaps not because of Hospital Account Bills Payable-Notes Payable Equipment Notes of LongDate (5) profits purchase DebentureBonds, Series B gear Fund Account Miscellaneous Balance to credit, Profit andLoss

Text Appearing After-image: a) Boost is because of price of new Terminals in St. Louis, ,527,000.00; less GoldEquipment sinking-fund Bonds retired, 0,000.00. (21 Boost is due to financial investment in Capital Stock associated with Wabash-PittsburghTerminal Ry., ,000,000.00, and First Mortgage Bonds associated with the Wabash-PittsburghTerminal Ry., ,154,000.00. (3) Boost is a result of amounts held in anticipation because of buy ofnew equipment. (4) Increase is because of problem of Wabash R. R. very first Lien ipercent Terminal GoldBonds, SI.664,000.00; Wabash R. R. Gear Gold Bonds Series The, 0,000.00;Wabash R.R. temporary 59^ Collateral Notes, ,160,000.00; less Gold EquipmentSinking Fund Bonds retired, 0,000.00. (5) See Note 3. —47— THE WABASH RAILROAD COMPANY. Operating Expenses—Year Ending Summer 30, 1904. UPKEEP OF Method AND STRUCTURES. Year endingJune 30,1904. Year endingJune 30,1903. ,950,007 26 188,963 21 421,804 69 522,933 43 114,243 15 421,079 68 7,364 43 51,332 82 3,104 67 774 66 ,672,302 45 Renewals of Rails

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Source: http://freescorereportgov.com/nice-credit-file-pictures/

from Free Credit Score Gov https://frecreditscorgov.wordpress.com/2017/10/17/nice-credit-file-pictures/