First off, traffic was down on Mr. Rodriguez's trip because of the holidays. The lag hits worst the days after. Which is why it was dumb to slavedrive on Christmas. Those crews would have been available to move parked trains the 26th and 27th as the lag hit hardest.

Normally lines aren't kept for the rare detours. But the most troublesome section of the Feather River serves as detours for 2 lines. Close it and the detours would be longer than for any other UP line. The Dunsmuir and Truckee lines by their ruggedness can be out of service for days or weeks instead of 24 hours when there is a natural disaster.

But UP hasn't even embargoed the Coast Line or Kansas Pacific or duplicate lines in Texas or the midwest. Even most PSRtards now recognize the finality of foolish abandonments.

Unless they change their minds.