For example, Saluda.
Why do railroads frequently hang onto right of ways that they have no plans to ever use again…and tracks that have been given back to nature for the most part.
Why don’t they sell or tax donate those scenarios.?
Thank You
Once it’s gone, it can’t come back. And though rust never sleeps, railroads can be rebuilt.
A number of lines were abandoned or at minimum severed as through routes during the ‘bad old days’ of the 1970s and 80s, only for the railroads to regret those actions years later as traffic patterns shifted or increased.
In the cases of Tennessee Pass and Saluda, the railroads actually learned from their previous mistakes, a rare occurrence.
Thank You… that was the other one i was thinking of… Tennessee Pass. I just wonder. It becomes obvoius that certain right of ways will NEVER be used again, yet they just sit and rot.
I suppose it could be hard to sell several miles of trackage. What would a developer do with 10 miles of land that is only 20 yards (if that is the case) wide.?
Spagetti farm?
Developer would not care about the 10 miles of right of way - he would only care about the width of the right of way that abuts the property he owns on both sides of the right of way - then he could develop the contiguous property, railroad be damned.
Pipeline/utility/communication companies are the obvious business that would buy or lease rail ROWs. Trail entities would also be interested. At the wider spots, such as the Minturn yard, developers at Vail Resorts would love to buy it.
right… Thanks Guys.! [:)]
The problem has to do with the underlying property rights. Some areas may be wholly owned by the railroad but there may be a small parcel that was taken by eminent domain and just granted an easement for “railroad purposes only”. So, it may not be a continuous piece of property.
When the tracks are pulled the easement is dissolved and the rights go back to the original owner.
This has come up with communication and pipelines being installed along the tracks. Lots of lawyers have made a good living going after companies for violating easements.
There are several other threads that go into this in much more detail
The Austin and Western Railroad, which is owned by Austin’s Capital Metro, stretches from Llano, TX to Giddings TX, but the line from just south of Burnet to Llano is abandoned. However, the tracks and bridges are still present although they appear to be deteriorating badly.
The Burnet to Llano line would make a good hike and bike trail. So, I asked a former manager at Capital Metro, who I had worked with in Dallas, why the agency did not take up the rails and turn the right-of-way into a hike and bike trail. He told me that it would cost more to do so than to leave it in its abandoned state. In other words, no money to fund the cost.
I would guess the landowners are seeking compensation. In the meantime the communication and pipeline companies would be seeking to get access via eminent domain.
IN several areas { Southeastern to name one} The railroads have adopted the practice of " Rail Banking " Norfolk Southern is well into practicing this .
I’ve written about Tennessee Pass before, since I was involved in the abandonment proceedings and subsequent developments up to my retirement. To repeat what I’ve said before, UP’s original intention for the Tennessee Pass line between Canon City and Gypsum was to fully abandon it after the acquisition and integration of SP.
The major service crisis UP experienced when it tried to integrate SP too quickly caused UP to reevalute its planned abandonments of lines that represented potential future capacity. even if there appeared to be no current use for them. Several lines were taken off the abandonment “hit list” because of this consideration, including Tennessee Pass - service over it was just “discontineud”. Under current law, if a railroad gets STB authority to discontinue service over a rail line (which is what UP got in the UP’SP merger decisionI, it can later restore the line to service without any regulatory approval or environmental evaluation. But rebuilding a fully “abandoned” rail line is like building a new one - it would take years just to get the environmental clearances and regulatory approvals. As a practical matter, as some other posts have already said, once its gone, its gone for good.
Did they rail bank the line in Shelby NC the tracks now are pulled up.
Since that time the ajoining Moffat route which was near capacity, I understand is down to a UP local, whatever coal is left, and BNSF trackage right train(s). Is there some thought now that Tennessee Pass is really excess? Also UP said they were in talks with a second railroad that is interested in Tenn Pass. Have you heard any more on that?
Has any ‘Rail Banked’ track ever been returned to operation?
There were some small sections returned to service in another thread. A section I am familiar with, is in the Upper Peninsular of Michigan. About 2 miles of an ex-LS&I rails-to-trails was re-railed and serves a mine-mill at Humbolt, MI. It’s operated by the Mineral Range RR.
You have Diesel Fried Chicken guy’s RGP squared off against MoPac Colorado line owner KVCN … plenty of reading material on the STB website (and some really weird commentary from people like the mayor of Salida, CO tying all of this to the Six County Project in Utah that is completely off the lines in question.)
You also have things like NS playing keep away with CN-IC on a portion of the old CR/PC/NYC- P&E in Illinois with an outside chance of that line also being future intercity HSR…but Illinois is too broke and too badly managed to take that any further.
Balt: there are at least six lines that I know of that came out of railbanking to run again, most for relatively short lengths. There is also the weird things happenin
Is this different from the guy who wanted to use it for private grain export unit trains?
It’s a good question how concerned UP still is about retaining Tennessee Pass for possible future use. I’m not in the loop anymore, so I haven’t heard anything about the status of UP’s talks with a “second railroad” (I forget the name right now, but it was mentioned in another thread). Still, such a deal wouldn’t necessarily be inconsistent with potential UP use of the line, as there could be a retention of trackage rights in the deal. One thing looming in the future that may be relevant to this is the upcoming expiration of UP’s lease on Moffat Tunnel (2025).
Yes, it’s different. The “guy who wanted to use it [the TP line] fr private grain export trains” wasn’t in negotiation with UP. He tried to acquire the line by an STB ordered “forced sale”. The STB rejected his petition for various deficiencies . He could refile but, to date, he hasn’t. However, during the proceeding, UP revealed it was in negotiations with someone else for acquisition of the line (I forget the name of the other party, but STB erroneously disclosed it and it was mentioned in another thread).