My view is that this is all moot, or better be. Private property. Fundamental to our freedom. As I recall, the NS rathole line south of Cincy is state owned and leased to NS. The state has profited well from that operation. It'd be neat if Trains would run a detailed article on the Swiss freiget operation. Wonder if it is as punctual as the passenger trains?
beaulieu SD70Dude Without the subsidy would any of that Swiss carload freight move by rail? I believe most of it would survive. The subsidy is mainly to help smaller shippers, particularly those not concentrated near other industries. To give you examples of customers you are unlikely to find in North America, take Migros (think Swiss Walmart) they have a huge central warehouse for dry goods located near Oberbuchseiten it processes on average 200 boxcars of inbound freight per day from suppliers, sorts the product, creates mixed pallets for each individual store within Switzerland, then reloads those same boxcars for onward movement to 15 regional centers where the pallets are crossdocked to trucks for final delivery. Directly across the mainline is another warehouse that handles their frozen food also rail served. Finally near the town of Suhr they have a warehouse handling their refridgerated and perishable foods. All of their trunk hauling is done by rail.
SD70Dude Without the subsidy would any of that Swiss carload freight move by rail?
Without the subsidy would any of that Swiss carload freight move by rail?
Sounds like what REA used to do over here.
I think some shortlines like Reading & Northern have been able to make certain short hauls with boxcars work. But this requires flexibility and attention to service, things the Class I's don't understand.
The operating ratio of such a service would also be way to high for Wall Street.
Greetings from Alberta
-an Articulate Malcontent
beaulieu Well busy is a relative term. About a dozen freight cars in and a similar number of empties out. I don't know what you are using, Bing, Google Maps, Google Earth. Look just east of the town of Oberbipp. You will see fuel storage tanks and a small yard. The tank farm typically gets 10 cars per day, give or take. The other manufacturing facilities on the south side of the tracks get 1 or 2 cars per day. The other section of the railway runs west from Biel along the south shore of the Bielersee (Lake Biel) and serves two aggregate quarries, the first near Sutz, and the second near Siselen.
Well busy is a relative term. About a dozen freight cars in and a similar number of empties out. I don't know what you are using, Bing, Google Maps, Google Earth. Look just east of the town of Oberbipp. You will see fuel storage tanks and a small yard. The tank farm typically gets 10 cars per day, give or take. The other manufacturing facilities on the south side of the tracks get 1 or 2 cars per day.
The other section of the railway runs west from Biel along the south shore of the Bielersee (Lake Biel) and serves two aggregate quarries, the first near Sutz, and the second near Siselen.
It looks like it's about a mile from the interchange to the tank farm. If the NG line already can accomodate the weight and clearance of SG equipment, why don't they 3 rail or 4 rail the segment?
MidlandMike It looks like it's about a mile from the interchange to the tank farm. If the NG line already can accomodate the weight and clearance of SG equipment, why don't they 3 rail or 4 rail the segment?
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