The Unprofessional Iconoclast Wrote:
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> There was a window of time when the Donner Pass
> line was REALLY underutilized. It was after UP
> had absorbed WP and SP had not yet struck up its
> alliance with Anshutz and D&RGW.
>
> UP didn't have any incentive to hand off traffic
> to SP at Ogden --- not when they had their own
> line to the Bay Area in the form of the WP.
>
> SP wasn't interchanging all that much with D&RGW.
> SP essentially had a "780-mile branch line to
> Utah," as one employee at Sparks, NV described to
> it to me at the time.
>
> I can kinda see where Moyers reasoned that Donner
> Pass could use some "plant rationalization" and no
> one would notice. At that point in time, they
> probably could have ripped out a lot more track
> over Donner and there wouldn't have been any
> "pinch points" as far as capacity was concerned.
>
> Sad but true.

Deregulation and the ecomony had a lot to do about the lack of trains on Donner between 80-83. Auto plants closed, trucks taking away the reminder of perishable traffic despite deregging the rates. RR writing contracts with specififc routing to their lines. Under used, yes compared to the 70s and earlier. The SP gave up on Donner in favor of a Sunset/Golden State shift of traffic.