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Alan, <br /> <br />I do appreciate the points you are making. I would just add that the rail scene today is a juxtaposition from what it was just a few years ago. Back then, there was excess capacity, so a Class I like BNSF selling or leasing redundant mainlines to lower cost operators made sense, since BNSF still could access the property and control the gateways. Now, capacity is close to being contrained, and BNSF is in a position to have to spend it's stockholder's stake to add sidings and double track. Of course, under the theory of dispersed redundancy, BNSF ideally would want that new trackage to be built where it could still be accessed if something happened on it't current trackage. Just double tracking the "Funnel" is not a panacea, for if there is even one derailment (still a common occurance in railroading) the entire set of trackage is taken out of service. This may not be so costly for low value commodities, but can be very costly for time sensitive traffic. <br /> <br />BNSF has (or has access to) five separate sets of mainlines (converging into two) out of the Dakotas and Wyoming coming into Idaho, and three separate sets of mainlines (convering into two) coming out of Washington into Idaho. That leaves just the single mainline ROW between Sandpoint and West Spokane. It would certainly fit into BNSF's Northern Tier lines philosophy if a second parallel but distant mainline is added between Washington and Montana, especially if another entity is charged with it's construction and maintenance, removing a cost liability should traffic levels fall in the future. Even if that same new trackage was accessable by UP, it is unlikely such access would amount to even a dent in BNSF's business. As you so succinctly state, only raw paranoia (and I might add, pure idiocy) would foster opposition to this new line by BNSF. If a caveat of open access (and a corresponding array of tax breaks to the open access infrastructure entity) were dependent on more than one railroad accessing the property, BNSF would be wise to simply allow one or tow token accesses onto MRL by UP or some shortline if it means a new secondary mainline paid for by someone other than BNSF stockholders.
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