Sally Hill Wrote:
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> Is the Feather River Route
> going to be abandoned at some point? Pretty
> expensive line to keep up if your not gonna use it
> much.

I don't believe it's likely to be abandoned. Note that even the Tennessee Pass line in Colorado is not abandoned, although most of it has been out of service for years.

Since the Feather River Route (from Keddie west) hosts BNSF trains coming off the Inside Gateway line, BNSF would snap that part up if UP didn't want it. But the eastern part is still useful for lower priority trains, especially since it is has lower grades than the Donner line. Given that UP is still talking to the state of California about using public money to improve Donner, (which would mean hosting more passenger trains), it seems unlikely that UP would be able to accept that money, then clog up Donner with the slower grain trains / manifests that currently go via Keddie.