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New oil find in Sevier County Utah; status of proposed rail link
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LC, <br /> <br />In a way you made my point. Railroads are not subject to local and state building regulations, ergo the hypocrasy of giving localities the "right" to force the preservation of an otherwise nondescript brick structure built in 1910, but not the right for force preservation of a rail line built in the 1880's. Given the total impact on local economies, it would make more sense to preserve the rail line than the old brick building. The Sevier County oil find is a case in point. There was a rail line running down from Thistle to Richfield that would be very useful right now for moving unit trains of oil to Salt Lake refineries, but because of the federal pre-emption regarding railroad regulation and FEMA funds distribution, that line is gone and now they're talking about building a new line east from the UP's LA to Salt Lake line, the cost of which is much more than if they had just been able to finance the reconstruction of D&RGW's Thistle branch after the slide. So now all the oil is moving by truck, and if they do get that line built, it may come too late to serve as an oil shuttle, because by then they will have built a pipeline. And to top it off, by accessing off of UP's LA-SL line rather than via the old D&RGW line, the potential Sevier rail shippers will be subject to UP rate monopolization rather than having UP and BNSF compete for rates via Thistle. <br /> <br />Whether the State of Utah was "offered" the Thistle branch via sale is moot, because: <br />1. Most such offers go through each state's DOT (read: Highway Depts.), and those guys don't want to fool around with railroad politics, they'd rather sling the asphalt around. Such sales should be offered through the States' Commerce departments, but nonetheless........ <br />2. Unless such a sale can afford the online shippers better rates and services, there is no justification for a state to take over rail lines such as the State of Washington deal. All that resulted in was Watco getting a sweet deal at the expense of the State's taxpayers, while the online shippers did not gain anything other than still having a railroad nearby. They are still subject to rail rate monopolization depending on which former Class I owner their plant/elevator lies next to, even though the former UP and BNSF lines interconnect. <br /> <br />That being said, check your local government regs, I bet you find some building codes therein.....
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