Re: Rehash: Progress on Crowning Stampede Pass Tunnel
Author: Bruce Kelly
Date: 10-26-2007 - 10:41
Stampede's 2.2 percent alone should not be a major factor. Look at how much intermodal BNSF and UP hoist up Cajon every day on 2.2 percent. And a much longer 2.2 percent at that. Even if you look at just one of Cajon's tracks, BNSF's Main 1, it handles an enormous parade of loaded eastbound stack, pig, and other trains. Plus the occasional heavy tonnage westbound. If BNSF started running Stampede and Stevens directionally (mostly EBs one line, mostly WBs the other line), they could seriously increase capacity over Stampede. In the case of Stevens, it might not be so much an increase in capacity but more of an increase in velocity. But that still leaves them with the need to raise tunnel clearances on Stampede for stacks. And there's still that business of Stampede trains running the long way around Pasco, which someone mentioned earlier. Over the summer, the GrandeLuxe had the option of running between Seattle and Spokane via Stevens, Stampede, or the Gorge. Every time it ran via Stampede, it fell hours behind schedule despite the best efforts of Ft. Worth to give it priority over the road.