Walter Morrison wrote:

About 15 years ago we began the process of abandoning a 12 mile industrial spur in a major city that carried an average of 177 cars per week. The endless number of crossings and crossing protection to maintain, the huge number of switches to maintain and most of all the unbelievable property Taxes on the ROW made it a big loser...

Just out of curiousity, and assuming it wouldn't be a breach of national security, could you furnish any specifics of the line being discussed here? I am in agreement with you that high taxes have been one of the biggest contributors to railroad branchline abandonments. If the tax burden could be lifted, or reduced, the lines would have had a brighter future. Has anyone "connected the dots" and noticed that as highways are widened and improved, it's not too much longer that the parallel railroad is abandoned? I think the Class Ones want to get out of the branchline business just as fervently as they wanted to get out of the passenger business forty years ago. This idea of "putting all their eggs in one basket" in the form of double stack intermodalism may backfire if the widening of the Panama Canal steals away all their container business coming over from China.