Railroads are, like utilities, “natural monopolies.” The consolidation of the Class 1 railroads in the U.S. into five massive companies over the past several decades has made it clear that there is no “free market” in rail transportation.
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Railroads are considered a natural monopoly. Because of the extremely high start-up costs, it is not profitable to start a railway if there is already a railway line serving the same route.
Although the first railroads were successful, attempts to finance new ones originally failed as opposition was mounted by turnpike operators, canal companies, stagecoach companies and those who drove wagons. Opposition was mounted, in many cases, by tavern owners and innkeepers whose businesses were threatened.
By inventing the market for public cloud services, AWS enjoyed a significant first-mover advantage over competitors that ceded Amazon years to develop services, build infrastructure and woo customers. But Amazon is only part of an emerging oligopoly where customers will have real choice.