Yeah, this thread has the same usual suspects of optimists and naysayers ... I count myself somewhere in the middle. If a freight operation can't be successful with the help of a commuter train operation essentially keeping half the line up to good standards, it will never work, barring some sort of sea change in this country's economic model. The next five to seven years should tell the tale.

Assuming at least a partial national economic recovery by 2010 or so, which would elevate the wood products and aggregates industries, NWP should have enough customers to reopen the line to Willits, maybe to wherever in the Eel canyon they get the aggregate. Trains are cheaper than trucks for a haul of any decent length, of course, and if the railroad can be proven reliable, customers will come back. The commuter train's presence should aid that reliability situation.

I can't imagine the railroad will ever be in service north of Willits (or aggregate loading point) again. If trains ever roll north of Willits again for any distance, I would consider it a miracle. And miracles happen ... occasionally.