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News Wire: NS trash train getting canned in 2018

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Posted by Brian Schmidt on Wednesday, December 6, 2017 10:25 AM

ROANOKE, Va. — A Norfolk Southern local train once heralded as the future of trash hauling is likely to suspend service this coming summer. Known as the "Waste Line Express," the train has hauled trash from Roanoke along a 4.5-mile spur to th...

http://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire/2017/12/06-roanoke

Brian Schmidt, Editor, Classic Trains magazine

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Posted by tdmidget on Wednesday, December 6, 2017 11:57 AM

Looks dumb to me. At $800,000 per year that is a 31.25 year payback. The road will certainly not last that longwith that kind of traffic.

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Posted by seppburgh2 on Wednesday, December 6, 2017 8:00 PM

O, in about 2 years of hauling down the country roads, the locals will love driving down perminent swim lanes.  That is unless that $ 25 m inlcudes rebuilding the local roads to interstate standards to weight. 

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Posted by tdmidget on Wednesday, December 6, 2017 9:19 PM

It will be a private haul road with no standards. Probably have an expected life of 5 tears max if paved. Haul roads in the mines out here are dirt and constantly graded, which does not come cheap.

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Posted by BaltACD on Wednesday, December 6, 2017 10:02 PM

tdmidget
Looks dumb to me. At $800,000 per year that is a 31.25 year payback. The road will certainly not last that longwith that kind of traffic.

I suspect the county wonders why they have financial issues.  This kind of thinking will have them bankrupt well before the end of the payback period.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

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Posted by Paul_D_North_Jr on Thursday, December 7, 2017 8:50 PM
Norfolk Southern carries trash out of Roanoke, Virginia
from Trains June 1996  p. 62
"This Fascinating Railroad Business" (title of 1943 book by Robert Selph Henry of the AAR)

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