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If memory serves me, Remmington closed last October. Yes it did run on the TP&W. I had heard that some contractor had made a play to buy the TP&W with the plan of tearing it up for scrap. The scrap was worth more than the purchase price. STB wouldn't allow the abandonment so it didn't sell to the contractor. Now, here's an interesting spin on the "maxed out capacity arguement.... Every year, the RR's go through a number of peaks - coal, grain, intermodal, etc. They always seem to manage through it. In the case of the "pre-Christmas" intermodal peak, volumes will nearly double. Grain will go from zero to gonzo overnight come fall rush. Coal goes up significantly during the summer a/c season. The commodities somewhat run on different parts of the networks for BNSF and for UP respectively. Regardless, they manage through a process of handling greater-than 100% of the usual volume. Its kind of like how everybody fits into church on Christmas and Easter, when all the extra people show up. So what does that tell you? I would argue that what the RR's traditionally consider "full" i.e. normal volume, isn't really full at all. It might be 80% or 90%, but it isn't full. If it was full, then, by definition, you couldn't add more. But, come peak, they do. That means that they really do have more capacity than is needed perhaps 8 months of the year and have slightly less that what is needed during the peaks. If they were using their assets at the same intensity all year as they do during peak-season, I bet they'd cover their cost of capital with no problems. They may have to identify the choke-points in their network to ease some pressure, but it begs the question of whether they really could move more than they are today. Have you ever sat along a supposedly busy main line for a half hour, an hour or more with no trains passing by? I've sat along the supposedly maxed-out BNSF double track transcon main for nearly 2 hrs at times with no trains at all. Same with UP on the Central Corridor. Here's the one, underlying thing that would have to change, shipper / customer demand behavior. There is a desire to use the railroad as a just-in-time transportation mode. i.e. shippers have gotten away with this sort of stuff: retailers who ship like crazy in the 2 months before Christmas. Grain shippers who ship like mad for 4 months following the harvest. Utility companies who wait until May to start shipping coal for summer demand. Yes, there is an inventory cost to the customer to hold the product longer. At the same time, there is great value to the RR to get these shipping patterns flattened out to a more year-around stable volume, where the assets continue to be used at 100% vs the current peaks and valleys. How do you get shippers there? Good question - it probably has to be financial (i.e. surcharges or credits ). I think that the right now the church is built for 95% of the Christmas and Easter parishoners, but nobody owns up to that yet.
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