Over the years, railroads have worked hard to eliminate duplicate lines that in the long ago past had been kept as secondary lines. One of the reasons the old timers kept these lines around was to have a back up plan should something happen on the primary route. All too often, the up keep of these lines paid for themselves in just this sort of a situation (not to mention the marketing departments could find business on the lines). Unfortunately, current management styles and high property taxes have meant the elimination of such routes, and in some cases, competing lines have abandoned a duplicate line in favor of sharing a route with the competitiion---works great until business picks up or something goes wrong. Many parts of the country are down to one primary route and if something goes wrong, the detour takes trains half way around the country because all the easy detour routes have been abandoned and turned into bike trails.