I notice a recurring problem in the USA where transit is approached from an implicitly car-oriented mindset.
my point is that these companies would be viable if they were only in real estate, but not viable if they were only in rail
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I don't think that's true. For nearly all private railroads, both divisions are profitable, though real estate has higher margins.
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no, not the profitability--what I mean is they *need* ownership of their own land (at minimum) to do justice to their rail
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if they were renting their stations, etc, from other landowners they'd be screwed
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Well, if we're talking about station facilities, then every subway in the world owns real estate.
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ya but subways are hardly the only kind of transit out there, you know?
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Very different from the transportation-real estate synergy that exists in Japan and Hong Kong.
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what would you say accounts for the difference?
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American transit providers--even where they DO own real estate--don't think of themselves as developers
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