Le Penseur,

Good analysis, except that I disagree with your line, "Cliffs has now done a 180 degree turn with respect to the road vs RR issue"

I think this was just Gonzalez commenting on the environment at the time that the decision was made to take out Spider and KWG. Remember the context, he was blaming his predecessors for decisions made several years prior. And at that time, Cliffs and KWG were working together towards the goal of rail. So I think this was more of a comment about historical context than an overt acknowledgement that the railway issue was being revisited.