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Re: Rio Grande PACIFIC to Lease Tennessee Pass
Author: Bruce Kelly
Date: 12-31-2020 - 17:01
To quote a line from one of my favorite movies, "Big things have small beginnings." And this thing could, possibly, get much bigger than just Uinta oil to the Gulf and Midwest grain to the Pacific.
Widen the view and look at this thing on a national rail map. Notice any other short lines or regionals that serve as a bridge between two sides of a Class I, providing the lower-cost means of doing the dirty work over major mountain grades? And in doing so, providing passage to trains that travel nearly coast-to-coast?
Next, look at the distant points that could be somewhat more directly connected (for UP customers, anyway) by a service lane via Tennessee Pass. PNW to the Gulf and Southeastern U.S., for example.
At the very least, Tennessee Pass would provide a route slightly parallel to what UP already has via southern Wyoming but shifted 100-200 miles south into Colorado, gaining UP the kind of "optionality" that BNSF takes great advantage of but UP has largely shunned in recent years.
And finally, a comparison of Tennessee Pass (TP) vs. the Moffat Route (MR). TP has a steeper max grade than MR. But how about the number and severity of curves, and the inherent long-term costs of wear to both rail and rolling stock. Steve Patterson once wrote a brilliant piece about the higher rates that were charged by one railroad vs. another based on the higher costs of rail replacement, wheel wear, crews (due to slower train speed), etc., when one route is more curvaceous than another. Would a train routed via TP provide a higher net profit than if it went via MR, or the other way around?
Last but not least, and this hinges on the points made above, consider which route, Tennessee vs. Moffat, has sufficient clearance for doublestacked marine containers, and which one doesn't.
Widen the view and look at this thing on a national rail map. Notice any other short lines or regionals that serve as a bridge between two sides of a Class I, providing the lower-cost means of doing the dirty work over major mountain grades? And in doing so, providing passage to trains that travel nearly coast-to-coast?
Next, look at the distant points that could be somewhat more directly connected (for UP customers, anyway) by a service lane via Tennessee Pass. PNW to the Gulf and Southeastern U.S., for example.
At the very least, Tennessee Pass would provide a route slightly parallel to what UP already has via southern Wyoming but shifted 100-200 miles south into Colorado, gaining UP the kind of "optionality" that BNSF takes great advantage of but UP has largely shunned in recent years.
And finally, a comparison of Tennessee Pass (TP) vs. the Moffat Route (MR). TP has a steeper max grade than MR. But how about the number and severity of curves, and the inherent long-term costs of wear to both rail and rolling stock. Steve Patterson once wrote a brilliant piece about the higher rates that were charged by one railroad vs. another based on the higher costs of rail replacement, wheel wear, crews (due to slower train speed), etc., when one route is more curvaceous than another. Would a train routed via TP provide a higher net profit than if it went via MR, or the other way around?
Last but not least, and this hinges on the points made above, consider which route, Tennessee vs. Moffat, has sufficient clearance for doublestacked marine containers, and which one doesn't.
