The field is open, but there are regulatory and legal difficulties. For example, and this is just taken out of the air as one of many, North American regulations require 800,000 pounds crash resistance at the ends of railway cars. This was very wise at the time when that was the only defence. Now Europeans have what's called crumple zones at the end of their passenger cars and locomotives. This collapses progressively just like on an automobile. It's the devil's own job getting those standards accepted in North America. It's coming, but a lot of this depends on our relationship with the United States. Many Canadian regulations are simply photocopied from the Federal Railroad Administration's standards in the United States. There are reasons for that, but it does hinder innovation. So there are paper barriers.
On October 31st, 2006. See this statement in context.