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Re: Requiem for the Santa Cruz Branch
Author: Carol L. Voss
Date: 01-05-2012 - 10:06
stash Wrote:
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> Would you subsidize it? A route with no customers
> would be a costly railroad to maintain. Do the
> pols there want to develop business along the line
> or are they hostile to business? The best way to
> maintain a branch is to give it a purpose and
> revenue. Try to get Davenport up and running
> again.
>
>
>One of the main reasons Cemex shut down the Davenport plant was because of the accusations of pollution with chemical poisons (some kind of Chromium or chloride, IIRC) by the residents of the community. The Permanente cement plant above Cupertino near San Jose is facing the same kinds of accusations from the residents. The Permanente plant has been operating since 1939 when the community of Cupertino was a tiny place surrounded by orchards. That community now is wall-to-wall subdivisions with a superior school district that is advertised in the Orient to attract all of the Silicon Valley types who live there---Mandarin is even taught in the schools. The residents want the cement plant shut down.
As an aside, along that branch between Santa Cruz and Davenport were several industries, Lipton's and Wrigley's, which were shut down years ago for reasons I am not clear on. Santa Cruz is not friendly to industry. (other than certain varieties of agricultural products, and I don't mean brussel sprouts!) :-)
C.
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> Would you subsidize it? A route with no customers
> would be a costly railroad to maintain. Do the
> pols there want to develop business along the line
> or are they hostile to business? The best way to
> maintain a branch is to give it a purpose and
> revenue. Try to get Davenport up and running
> again.
>
>
>One of the main reasons Cemex shut down the Davenport plant was because of the accusations of pollution with chemical poisons (some kind of Chromium or chloride, IIRC) by the residents of the community. The Permanente cement plant above Cupertino near San Jose is facing the same kinds of accusations from the residents. The Permanente plant has been operating since 1939 when the community of Cupertino was a tiny place surrounded by orchards. That community now is wall-to-wall subdivisions with a superior school district that is advertised in the Orient to attract all of the Silicon Valley types who live there---Mandarin is even taught in the schools. The residents want the cement plant shut down.
As an aside, along that branch between Santa Cruz and Davenport were several industries, Lipton's and Wrigley's, which were shut down years ago for reasons I am not clear on. Santa Cruz is not friendly to industry. (other than certain varieties of agricultural products, and I don't mean brussel sprouts!) :-)
C.
