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Milwaukee Road history - Wikipedia version

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[quote user="greyhounds"] I disagree, based on evidence, that it was a viable or even potentially viable, enterprise. [/quote]Is this enough evidence for you....?[quote user="billbtrain"] I have to agree with Michael Sol that the Milwaukee could again have been a viable railroad.Container traffic out of Tacoma,coal from the Roundup,Montana mines,forest products from Washington,the SP connection at Portland,the connection at the Canadian border,grain from the Dakota's and Montana,etc prove to me that it could have worked.Better than the midwest lines in an area overrun with failing economies and lack of rail customers to keep at least 7 systems going.Plus the facts that the ICC,FRA,Democrats,Republicans,and the Supreme Court were willing to dump all kinds of money into the midwest,Conrail,and Amtrak,but not save the Milwaukee Road as a transcon system.Then you have the Milwaukee Executives deferring maintenance on physical plant and equipment and driving away business,just to prove their statements that the railroad would not/could not/should not make money on its own.Looks to me like a lot of the wrong people in the wrong places.I think they should be put out to pasture and bring back the Milwaukee Road as a transcon.[/quote]Bill does a nice job of summerizing just some of the evidence that the Milwaukee was predicated for success through the Northern Tier, probably in a better position than GN, definitely in a better position than either NP or UP.  But due to assorted malfeasance (mostly political) it was terminated unjudiciously.  If the Milwaukee PCE had been allowed to continue, it would probably be the dominate line for intermodal, although the likelyhood is that it would have been merged into UP or BNSF by now.It should then be a shock to Ken that many parts of his so-called "unviable corpse" are either alive and well (Miles City to Twin Cities, South Dakota core lines, St. Maries River Railroad), have been seriously considered for return to service (Snoqualmie Pass line, Ellensburg to Lind, St. Regis to Spokane) or are currently being seriously considered for rebuilding (State of Washington rail plan.  In addition, it doesn't take a genius to realize that BNSF/UP/MRL would be doing themselves a favor by rebuilding certain sections of the former Milwaukee ROW that are superior to those railroads' current alignments (Sixteen Mile Canyon vs Bozeman Pass, Missoula west, Marengo to Puget Sound, et al).What Ken will never acknowledge is that oftentimes the best don't survive, while the lessers stay alive.BTW - regarding total tonnage as the primary indicator of success:  Didn't the SP historically have more tonnage than the SF?  Yet the SF portion of BNSF is flying higher than the SP portion of UP!  Moral - it ain't tonnage, it's net revenue that counts the most.
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