The city of New Orleans is considering selling the New Orleans Public Belt RR after being approached with an offer. The NOPB serves the port of New Orleans with about 100 miles of track including the Huey P. Long bridge.
http://www.theneworleansadvocate.com/news/11327999-123/mayor-landrieu-floats-idea-of
Could this start a bidding war between CSX, NS, UP, BNSF, CN, and KCS? Of course the best solution would be for them to all pitch in, combine and operate the RR as a terminal RR. Would enable MOW to be comleted much faster using each RR’s personel.
I agree that combined ownership would be a good solution, in line with many other cities. I was concerned with the ownership being in private hands with essentially a monopoly on local transfers.
The linked article says that one of Thomas Coleman’s businesses - until last year - was “a rail line in New Jersey”. Anybody know which one ?
I’ll suggest instead one of the several shortline empires, again as a neutral switching road. They have the experience in operations like that, and the financial resources to pull it off. Even if owned by a consortium of the Class I’s, it would tend to be somewhat of an “orphan child”.
PDN - Doesn’t show up in the pocket guide or STB indexes.
" Would enable MOW to be comleted much faster using each RR’s personel." - statement doesn’t fly out here in the real world. PDN pretty well hit the nail on the head. Some wanna-be railroader would be buying trouble.
Why not Conrail South ( or New Orleans )? Conrail certainly has the experience to operate with more than one RR.
The problems with the NOPBRwy go back several years…In part Hurricane Katrina was responsible for some of it… In the aftermath of that August 2005 event, NOLA has at times been awash in cash from Federal Government Programs and State funds trying to repair and upgrade the area. Back in 2010 there was a ‘problem(s)’ that arose with the NOPBR see linked @ http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2010/07/new_orleans_public_belt_railro.html
“New Orleans Public Belt Railroad spending gets scrutiny”
By Times-Picayune Staff
FTA:"…James Bridger, the agency’s general manager since 2001, earns $350,000 a year after receiving increases totaling $100,000 between 2007 and 2009. Five commission administrators earn more than $100,000 a year, including three who are paid $150,000 or more.
Daniel Erath, The Times-Picayune archiveJames Bridger has been general manager of the New Orleans Public Belt Railroad since 2001.
Sam, the NOPBRR has been cleaned up quite a bit since the articles you quoted. Bridger was sent to jail, all commissioners resigned and the board was replaced with a smaller one. I think Bridger made many improvements to the RR, though he also made a lot of improvements to himself. The media at the time seemed to be obsessed with the expense of the “business” cars, but I think the most damaging thing he did was to drive away their biggest customer, BNSF. He greatly increased their rates, so BNSF contracted with NS to handle their through traffic and moved their port business to Houston. Here are some articles from that time that I got tired of wading through, but if anyone is interested…
Which highlights the fact that there is no truly ‘captive’ customer. Where there is a will, they will develop a way
Thanks, Paul of Covington for the ‘referenced stories’. I have been a fan of things NOLA since I first went to College in 1962…Mardi Gras has been a favorite destination ( for Lots of reasons [swg] ). Back in 2005 I had a major College paper sabotaged by the events of that 2005 Hurricane season. A one semester paper went on into two semesters…
You are right, those two re-habed Pullmans sure got the NOPBR a lot of ‘ink’. I would definitely agree that the ‘property’ would be worth much to any group of railroads in that area…My other point was the H.P.L. Bridge since its recent rehabilitation is a much more valuable asset thses days.
My feeling is that the political structure down there is now a much higher profile since 2005, and the politicians would like a lot less light on their ‘doings’. Katrina, and its aftermath sure exposed some local political ‘maneuvering’. Restructured with a streamlined management and a more interested ownership, the NOPBR would be a handsome asset, for owners and the area.
I highly doubt that in this day and age the Class 1 railroads serving the city will get together to buy the Belt railroad.
I also think some of the concerns being expressed here about a potential purchaser may be unfounded. Look at the Pacific Harbor line at the Port of L.A, the company took over operations from a company,Harbor Belt Lines, controlled by the Class 1’s serving the port. It is set up as a neutral switching railroad and from what I’ve read most customers in the port feel it has created a more level playing field rather than what previously existed.
Operated by the same people that own South Shore freight, Long Island RR freight and Louisville & Indiana. (Anacostia’s tribe)
Validates PDN’s comments above. (and no more CR’s please. One was plenty. Let’s keep the skeletons in one closet…)
[:-,] Well, I don’t think the NOPBRR will be disposing of quite so much excess R-O-W and real estate in ‘fire sale’ mode as CR did . . .
Besides - that’s the only state in the Union whose laws are based on French “civil law”. I’m sure the usual physical laws of measurements in surveying still apply there - but I’m not so sure about laws regarding government grants of R-O-W, privately acquired easements, “conditional fees” limiting the use to railroad purposes, quit claims, adverse possession, encroachments, etc., etc. . . .
Pacific Harbor is also one that I had in mind as a potential ‘model’ for this.
My guess is that they are referring to the East Jersey Railroad Company in Bayonne NJ. Its part of the tank terminal company that the Coleman family sold recently. A reference: http://www.imtt.com/index.php?page=bayonne
The sale of the tank farm comany was for about $1 billion, so he probably has the ca$h and needs a hobby. [:-^]
Yeah, we quit using arpents a while back.[:)]
[quote]
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An arpent (French pronunciation: [aʁpɑ̃]) is a unit of length and a unit of area. It is a pre-metric French unit based on the Roman
Rods / perches (16.5 ft. in length, but for area 16.5’ x 16.5’ = 272.25 sq. ft., 160 per acre [43,560 ft.] ) are bad enough . . . but this “arpent”* thing would make my head hurt ! [banghead]
(was “argent”, but I fixed it. - PDN)
Is that a Louisiana Arpent or a Missouri Arpent?
Louisiana. At least that’s where the poster who brought up this Napoleonic Code measurement (Paul of Covington) says he’s from.
I didn’t expect this much response about arpents. Actually, after my comment, I remembered that as late as the late 1950’s, the arpent was still in informal use. I remember my cousin telling me how many arpents back from the bayou the farm he grew up on extended.