Some of those points are valid and some is nonsense. I do follow railroad stocks and news about them. There is no evidence that they are being driven by hedge funds. Returning earnings not needed for capital reinvestment to stockholders is what business is about. Anyone who owns a stock market mutual fund or ETF is getting part of that money.
But I think the term PSR is a lot of fog. What management should be doing and GOOD management has been doing is to constantly look for ways to reduce cost of the level of service that should be provided. Good management decides what product is to be provided and then figuring out how to do it at least cost. That is what is done by Microsoft, Caterpillar, UPS and any other well run business. So why not with railroads.
All this hype about PSR is a big PR scam.
