brand new rail lines and expansion

Trains Magazine General Discussion
1

Hi everybody!

It seems I hit a real nerve with my topic on re-building abandonded rail lines. Now I would like to hear others ideas on building brand NEW rail lines, especially since Mr. Rose at BNSF said that railroads are headed for trouble due to congestion. Personally I think that most new rail building will be out west due to a lot of population growth and increased asian trade since the era from the Civil War to WWI was when the western railroads were built. With all that challenging terrain I will be thrilled to see the solutions developed. Anyhow here are some of my ideas.

  1. With the need for more track and the controversy of no real rail competition in the northern plains I can see one of two possible scenarios. The first is that CP rail could buy the former CMSTPP route from Twin Cities to Billings, plus the MRL, trackage rights on SI/UP from Sandpoint, Idaho to Tri Cities and trackage rights on BNSF Yakima and Sea-Tac. Essentially it would be very close to resurrecting the PCE.

  2. Or perhaps the owners of DM&E and ICE could buy the MRL and use the same trackage rights across Washington that CP Rail would have to. I would not be surprised if Union Pacific decided to stitch together a Chicago-Puget Sound route by aquiring the DM&E/IC&E by-passing Twin Cities with a Chicago-K.C. line to boot. Next step would be to buy the MRL putting them into Sandpoint and having the same connections to Portland and Puget Sound.

  3. Further South perhaps a new line across South-Central Utah close to the Interstate so that UP can have a shortcut by-passing SLC for freight from So Cal bound for Denver could be in order.

  4. I like Futuremodal’s idea of re-building the Tonopah and Goldfield plus the Modoc line so that UP would have a whole new route from L.A. up Owens Valley on to Reno, over the Modoc to Klamath Falls and north to Bend, Oregon.

I think the above idea would be better if there was an extension from west-central Nevada southeas

2

Alotofwhatyousuggestedisjustrebuildingoldlinesnothingnew. Railroadshavebeendoingalrightwithwhattheyhaveforthepast150+yearssoIdoubtanythingwillchangeanytimesoon.

3

I seem to remember something about the D&RGW looking at a route across Utah to connect with the San Pedro, Los Angeles & Salt Lake but when that became a part of UP, there was no reason to any longer. Wonder what the engineering outlook was? Any RG fans out there that are familiar?

Also, that UP had looked at a route across Wyoming many years ago that bypassed Cheyenne but dropped that (for what reason I do not know).

4

Sounds really good on paper but just two questions:
Where would all the additional traffic come from?
Where would the money come from to build all of this?

5

If you’re talking about new rail lines, are you saying brand new independent companies or new lines built by current rail companies?

A new line that starts at Coos Bay Oregon and runs east is a good start. Why not try and tap new markets? This line could follow some of the original surveys, but online traffic would be non-existent between the I-5 Corridor and Southern Idaho. Through Southern Idaho you get to provide compeition with UP for all that ag traffic. Then continue east to the south slope of Wyoming’s Wind River Range, tapping that energy development potential while there, over South Pass, east to the southern edge of the PRB (again tapping the coal region for revenues), then either connect with the DM&E, or continue east to connect with KCS.

That’s just one prospect. What you want to follow in terms of your business model is:

  1. Start at a West Coast site which has the necessary characteristics to be a deep water port. That is your anchor site. Can be a port with existing rail service, or a brand new one.

  2. If you can, have your line be able to touch the farthest east barge port on the Columbia/Snake river waterway system and the farthest west barge port on the Mississippi/Missouri river waterway system. Then make sure your line between these opposite coast ports is built for easy grades and HAL railcars. Subsequently, the rest of your line outside the barge port corridor can be built for higher speeds and steeper grades. This will allow you to incorporate multimodal solutions for bulk export commodities which are not time sensitive, while saving the remaining trackage for COFC/TOFC of higher speeds and perhaps lighter rail.

  3. Invade areas which currently have no real rail competition such as Montana or Southern Idaho. This allows you to offer alternatives for ag shippers who will be more than happy that you showed up, while still retaining decent profit margins under duopoly rules of economics.

  4. Whether you