My feeling, and others might disagree, is simply this:
1. The railroad is the smartest, most efficient, and most cost-effective long term solution for moving ore.
2. KWG has the claims staked and has wanted to promote the construction of a railway that all companies in the Ring could benefit from.
3. Cliffs wants a monopoly in the Ring. The last thing that Cliffs wanted was for everyone to have equal access.
4. If Cliffs supported a railroad, the government and everyone else would say, "then why don't you just support KWG and use theirs?"
5. Therefore, Cliffs had to argue the case of a different approach. And admittedly, a road is both less capital-intensive up front, and faster to build.
There are, arguably, other reasons than what I just suggested.
Ultimately, I think that Cliffs made a terrible, terrible business decision (for Cliffs) in not deciding to buy KWG out for about 25 cents a share two years ago. But in trying to nickel and dime in the short term, to save perhaps a hundred million or two, they have possibly cost themselves billions of dollars in the long term.