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Altamontonians--

Not to add to the rumors, but to add to the rumors . . .

The proposed cutoff isn't about Oregon traffic. I was told by a "very reliable source" that UP would not be renewing Cal Northern's lease on the West Valley in 2010, would repair the Richfield bridge pier, and would begin running trains for the Feather River via the West Valley. Looney idea at first glance. However, the Durham-Oroville rumor fits right in with his scenario, and makes some sense more than running trains all the way back south to Binney from Tehama. Less than fifteen miles of new railroad would be needed, about 10 miles of the route would be on the old Sac Northern, and five miles to a point north of the river in Oroville, avoiding a new bridge (which would be cost prohibitive).

Why would they consider this for manifest freight? It isn't that it's for the manisfest traffic per se, it's to keep the manifest traffic out of the Davis-Roseville area. When the Port of Oakland goes into full swing, both UP and BNSF stacks are going over Donner -- the fact that even in slow economic times UP has recently started on the Donner re-tracking & tunnel work shows they believe this traffic will materialize. There is also a triple track project for the East Bay underway soon.

Even if they can triple track along the Bay and from Benecia to Davis, the bridges and Causeway are monumentally expensive projects, and UP is contractually bound to operate the Capitols for the state (which rebuilt UP's railroad) through this area which takes much capacity. Fifteen miles of new railway, ten on old row and five across farmland now seems cheap in comparison -- NM just put in 18 miles of more challenging new line. So there's the Mococco line recently rumored to come up for Bay-Roseville traffic, and now this. One possible scenario is route WB manifestt Oroville to Stockton via WP (or via Roseville to classify)- Lathrop - Moccoco - Oakland and EB Oakland - Davis - Tehama - Durham - North Oroville. The long way, yes, but the trade-off is you get those slow-poke manifests off of the very-expensive-to-expand Davis-Roseville section (2 big bridges and a causeway).

I'm not saying this is how it is going to play out, but it puts a number of seemingly disjointed rumors in context, and does make some operating sense should massive Port traffic come to be.

(Note: I believe the Pacific Rim Railway will interchange with UP at Tehama and share the Sacramento River Bridge with UP, as its 50 daily triple-stacks make their way from the mega-port of Eureka to a hole in the earth near Moab, UT.)

--acm