Holly Gibson Wrote:
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> 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.

Back around 1985 it dawned on one some Class I execs that they could transfer their common carrier obligation to some unsuspecting "entrepreneurs" under the guise of "shortlining" some of their unprofitable routes. The theory was that they could still get the roadhaul traffic but without the requirement to maintain or market the line. Most were 20-year leases with the knowlege they could always abandon and scrap the line somewhere in the future.

Many of these operations with decent traffic levels and savvy management continue to this day; others have failed and are now bike trails.

The Grangeville line is an example of extremely high maintenance and operating expense. The fact that the line is owned by a scrapper only means that the line will most likely survive in its present state until one of two things happens: (1) the scrap market goes crazy (as did with the quick removal of the McCloud or (2) the present supply of relay rail and OTM is exhausted making the rail on the line attractive for relay use. Understand that scrappers buy up these marginal branches solely as a supply of material to keep them in business. All of the rail and OTM has been inventoried by size, condition and milepost locatiion and is actually their "storage yard" until a better offer comes along.

I have hyrailed the Grangeville line several times and am amazed each time that it has survived this long given the amount of repairs the trestles will require. I'm sure that the recent car storage has extended the life of the line somewhat but once the cars are gone so, most likely, will the track. Should anything catastrophic happen to any of the major bridges, scrapping the line would become MUCH more difficult and expensive. Once the decisiion is made to scrap the line, it will be to their benefit to move quickly and get it done and I believe that they will do so in the near future.

My two cents worth...been there done that!

Dick Samuels
www.oregonpacificrr.com