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Railroads Struggle to Deliver Coal to Utilities

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[quote]QUOTE: Originally posted by Murphy Siding [quote]QUOTE: Originally posted by futuremodal Many other industries will maintain "unused" assets for long periods of time, because they understand the cyclical nature of business. Apparently, railroads do not understand this basic business tenet. You see, if you scrap an asset, you don't have that asset later on when you need it. Now that the nation's energy and other transportation needs are such that abandoned lines would be put into play right now, it shows a lack of foresight (or a complete lack of concern) by the shortsighted railroad industry. Don't these guys follow economic trends? Or did they think that the US was destined for a Soviet-style command economy, so why save assets if the railroads are going to be taken over by the federales? [/quote] Hey Dave- any chance you could make a quick list of the under-utilized or dormant rail lines that will be really busy 10 years from now? 20 years from now? That way, the railroads would have an easier time planning some of this stuff?[;)][:-,] [/quote] So your asking me to predict what rail management will stumble into 10 or 20 years from now? We don't even know what the outcome of pending legislation in Congress will be. Where will new coal fired plants be located? Or will anti-coal politicians sweep into office in the next few elections? And most of such lines are already condos and bike paths, aka most of the lopping took placel in the last two decades. Is there anything left to cut? But since you asked, I'll give it a start. Keep in mind these are lines that should be saved, and I'm not predicting that they will saved (in fact, the good money is on further retrenchment). Sticking with the PNW - UP Pocatello to Silver Bow and BNSF Great Falls to Helena - Once part of the vital I-15 rail corridor, traffic on the UP was relegated to Butte locals when BN mothballed the Great Falls to Helena line. Before Staggers, there were quite a few run through pota***rains from Canada to SoCal over this corridor. Then Staggers was passed, and BN mothballed the GF-Helena line. UP/CP shifted Cal-bound pota***o the I-5 rail corridor, now a very clogged line. Think of what would be moving over this line post NAFTA (assuming BNSF didn't try to bottleneck rate the viability out of existence)! Furthermore, at one time MRL made a bid for the UP line and possibly the GF line, but BN nixed the deal. The likelyhood is eventual abandonment if not shortline sale (to anyone but MRL). Also, BNSF owns the connecting line between Silver Bow on the UP and Garrison on MRL. Yet another example of shortsighted railroad politics. There is nothing to be gained by either UP or BNSF by playing "spin the bottleneck" with each other, yet there it is, a major North American transportation corridor without border to border US rail service. In this case, it would be prudent for the federales to step in and b***h slap both BNSF and UP for causing a major market skewing that hurts the US economy. I guess a little mileage based rate regulation is in order. UP and the Modoc Line - Here is a more blatant example of internal idiocy. The Modoc Line used to serve as an alternative line between Salt Lake City and the PNW, an alternate to the Shasta Line in SP's case, and an alternative to UP's Blue Mountain (ex Oregon Short Line) division when UP took over SP. UP did use it briefly but then decided that the Blue Mountain line would suffice, and abandoned a major portion of the Modoc, selling the rest of it to a shortline operator. Keep in mind this all happened in the last decade. Now that traffic levels through the Blue Mountains have reached a critical threshhold, UP could really use a viable alternate. But, well............ Because we are focused on pre vs post Staggers, I'll keep the PCE off the list, even though I see the PCE as the first victim of Staggers. The PCE was torn out in 1980, Staggers was passed in 1980, so assuming the legislation went through a normal crafting period, the contents of Staggers was known prior to the final court ordered PCE retrenchment, and it had to effect the players involved. It was good ol' BN which testified that the PCE was nothing but excess capacity, the remaining BN lines would suffice for the rest of eternity, so let's rip 'er out. And after all we've learned about the inner poltical doings of the entities involved, you can bet BN officials had their fingers crossed, hoping the reality of the PCE's value as a viable rail transportation corridor would not leak out. Of course, all BN wanted was to eliminate any competition so they could begin implementation of monopolistic tactics. The rest of the 10 will probably reside in the Midwest and East Coast, as that's where a majority of the rail trackage was taken out. Much of the trackage of Conrail predeccessors would be in play today from what I have read on threads related to Conrail, et al. Of course, we should also probably include double track that was single tracked as lost capacity. Such wasn't related to Staggers, but is part of the greater problem of capacity shortages. Again, I will ask you this: Can you name any other industry besides the rail industry that has engaged in such a canabalistic attitude toward it's hard assets?
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