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Re: Embargoed or Abandoned Routes that Returned to Service
Author: FUD
Date: 03-19-2020 - 17:44
I'm not sure I'd rate all of the transit conversion as being of embargoed or abandoned routes.
SMART was an operating (barely) freight railroad from Novato to Shiloh Road before SMART, and still is (sort of); though yes, the part south of Ignacio was indeed resurrection of an abandoned route.
Sac RT (Gold Line), east of Brighton, is on what was and is an active (industrial track) freight line r/w, with the freight line moved to the south edge of the r/w to make room for light rail tracks; yes, beyond Hazel (Aerojet), the old freight line was in fact abandoned and light rail restored track to portions (where not covered by road widenings) of the old line and even reused a bridge. Granted, west of Brighton, the light rail does indeed follow the abandoned freight line that once ran on R Street. The Blue Line south of downtown mostly runs in the r/w of the active UP (former WP) main line, and northeast of Swanston it mostly parallels (though not taking any r/w from) the UP (former SP) main line to Roseville. Blue Line does use a short piece of former SN branch between Swanston and Del Paso. Most of those parallel freight lines were never abandoned or embargoed.
San Jose VTA light rail parallels the UP (former SP) Permanente branch, which still has some freight service, and shares a bridge over the SR17 freeway with it (though not track - just the bridge). At the north end, a short section between Moffat Field and Mountain View actually shared track with freight service to the base from Caltrain, until Google took over the Base and ended service. In that case, abandonment happened well after light rail arrived, and was due to external circumstances not light rail.
I don't think any of the Muni follows abandoned freght lines, except perhaps for accidental replacement of whatever might have been previously removed from King and 3rd Streets. The E line does pretty much follow the old Belt Rwy, but I don't think it deliberately reuses a lot of its r/w.
LA's Gold Line, of course, is a prime example of reusing a railroad - for practical purposes, it *is* the old Santa Fe line, though till active for freight for a little bit of the east end on parallel track. The Blue Line follows the old PE line, but the previously abandoned segments were mainly in the streets, and were gone long ago. The main line was and is still in operation for freight - just moved over in the r/w as with the Folsom line in Sacramento. The Expo line pretty much does reuse PE's Air Line, from Expo to Santa Monica (Expo Blvd into downtown LA is actually new). And the Crenshaw Line under construction does follow parts of the Santa Fe Harbor Sub that were abandoned and removed specifically for the light rail construction - were still operating before that. The Metrolink San Berdoo line was the PE line as far east as El Monte, but it was never abandoned; it just changed ownership and got squeezed into the minimum space for a single track as the rest of the freeway median was converted to the El Monte Busway. I have a slide someplace of a SP switcher wandering down the median of I-10 some time in the late 1960s, taken from our family Dodge in the fast lane.
San Diego's fun because the San Ysidro and Santee lines actually still carry freight overnight - on the light rail tracks that used the freight r/w.
SMART was an operating (barely) freight railroad from Novato to Shiloh Road before SMART, and still is (sort of); though yes, the part south of Ignacio was indeed resurrection of an abandoned route.
Sac RT (Gold Line), east of Brighton, is on what was and is an active (industrial track) freight line r/w, with the freight line moved to the south edge of the r/w to make room for light rail tracks; yes, beyond Hazel (Aerojet), the old freight line was in fact abandoned and light rail restored track to portions (where not covered by road widenings) of the old line and even reused a bridge. Granted, west of Brighton, the light rail does indeed follow the abandoned freight line that once ran on R Street. The Blue Line south of downtown mostly runs in the r/w of the active UP (former WP) main line, and northeast of Swanston it mostly parallels (though not taking any r/w from) the UP (former SP) main line to Roseville. Blue Line does use a short piece of former SN branch between Swanston and Del Paso. Most of those parallel freight lines were never abandoned or embargoed.
San Jose VTA light rail parallels the UP (former SP) Permanente branch, which still has some freight service, and shares a bridge over the SR17 freeway with it (though not track - just the bridge). At the north end, a short section between Moffat Field and Mountain View actually shared track with freight service to the base from Caltrain, until Google took over the Base and ended service. In that case, abandonment happened well after light rail arrived, and was due to external circumstances not light rail.
I don't think any of the Muni follows abandoned freght lines, except perhaps for accidental replacement of whatever might have been previously removed from King and 3rd Streets. The E line does pretty much follow the old Belt Rwy, but I don't think it deliberately reuses a lot of its r/w.
LA's Gold Line, of course, is a prime example of reusing a railroad - for practical purposes, it *is* the old Santa Fe line, though till active for freight for a little bit of the east end on parallel track. The Blue Line follows the old PE line, but the previously abandoned segments were mainly in the streets, and were gone long ago. The main line was and is still in operation for freight - just moved over in the r/w as with the Folsom line in Sacramento. The Expo line pretty much does reuse PE's Air Line, from Expo to Santa Monica (Expo Blvd into downtown LA is actually new). And the Crenshaw Line under construction does follow parts of the Santa Fe Harbor Sub that were abandoned and removed specifically for the light rail construction - were still operating before that. The Metrolink San Berdoo line was the PE line as far east as El Monte, but it was never abandoned; it just changed ownership and got squeezed into the minimum space for a single track as the rest of the freeway median was converted to the El Monte Busway. I have a slide someplace of a SP switcher wandering down the median of I-10 some time in the late 1960s, taken from our family Dodge in the fast lane.
San Diego's fun because the San Ysidro and Santee lines actually still carry freight overnight - on the light rail tracks that used the freight r/w.
