Edit post

Edit your reply below.

Post Body
Enter your post below.
[quote]QUOTE: Originally posted by Overmod And MRL didn't actually ASK BNSF if they wouldn't approve of this newfangled service? Especially if it could be phrased as a win-win solution that assisted container balance? If there's a further issue, get people in Rapid City, or elsewhere on the 'virtual link', to chime in. Doesn't seem to me that a triweekly service is much threat to unit grain trains... and just what, exactly, happens to the containers loaded with grain when they get to Missoula? Wouldn't most of this grain be continuing to, say, Pasco, over BNSF? Would it be transloaded from containers there, or continue via intermodal train (rather than unit grain)? Doesn't seem to me like a short-route issue, but even if BNSF disagrees I'd think it would make sense to ask... [/quote] You have to remember that MRL has excess capacity to run new single stack operations, and a service entirely run on MRL rails keeps it from being discounted by the connecting "overlords". BNSF's line from Sandpoint ID into Spokane (the erstwhile "Funnel") is at max capacity, same for the line on to Pasco and the Columbia Gorge, so allowing a new fangled single stack bimodal service on these lines is anethema to BNSF folks. Such an untried concept might end up delaying current TOFC/COFC/unit grains trains already plying those lines. The reason we would terminate the west end at Missoula is that is where the rails end, so to speak, for the connection to Lewiston ID. Since what we were attempting was to take the Lewiston bound truck traffic off I-90/US 12/Montana 200 and onto MRL rails, most of the target traffic would divert in Missoula anyway, and as I mentioned before, any attempt to get into Spokane would require approval of BNSF since MRL rails end in Sandpoint ID and MRL uses trackage rights on into Spokane over BNSF. Secondly, there was no online intermodal service through Montana's primary cities on the I-90 corridor (although I think BNSF does run some intermodal out of Butte's Port of Montana now). Our plan was to run Billings to Helena to MIssoula and back, with those towns the intermodal terminals. The MRL was the corridor where all this truck traffic merged so to speak, with highway traffic to and from Billings connecting with Rapid City and other SD points, points in North Dakota, and points in Wyoming. For example, there is alot of containerized bentonite coming out of Wyoming headed for the Port of Lewiston.
Tags (Optional)
Tags are keywords that get attached to your post. They are used to categorize your submission and make it easier to search for. To add tags to your post type a tag into the box below and click the "Add Tag" button.
Add Tag