Disappearing railroad blues
"Instead, blame two other traditional Western bogeymen, Wall Street and Washington. To the approval of the stock market, and the further enrichment of a billionaire, the federal government approved the merger of the Union Pacific and Southern Pacific railroads last month. UP says it can handle SP's long-haul traffic on other routes, and that there isn't enough local freight to matter.
So the UP wants to rip out these rails - about 170 miles of the old "Royal Gorge Route" that runs west in Colorado from Caûon City to Salida and over Tennessee Pass."
http://www.hcn.org/issues/87/2678?src=rc