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Canadian National may reopen Wisconsin branch line
It may or may not be a good time to be CN, depending on your work ethic:
This will be a conflict of interests of gigantic proportions for the tree worshipers. On one hand, railroads are supposedly green, whatever green is, besides a color. So the greenie weenie group will be cheering CN for moving loads that would otherwise move by truck.
On the other hand, CN is chopping down trees and grinding up other plants. This makes CN anti-green. Look for greenie weenie protesters trying to save the trees and weeds.
Add to it, evil sand. Not sure how sand is evil, but according to the manual printed on recycled toilet paper, “How To Be Green,” it is. Plus a sand processing plant will be built, resulting in more chopped down trees. Look for more protests.
On the other hand, there will be new jobs where there were none. But none of those jobs are green so they don’t really count as jobs, per decree by professors at UW-Madison, who never had a real job in the real world. And the workers taking those jobs will be labeled as evil by the protesters. Look for more protests and some violence by the protesters.
That is, if the protesters don’t get diverted to the local drinking establishment. Which one? Does it matter? I say utilize all of them. So there may not be a protest after all because the local population can easily drink the protesters under the table, without trying. The result will be protesters with really bad hangovers. Considering the alternative, hangovers can be very good for protesters. What is the alternative? I have seen sand protesters almost get run over by loaders and trucks while protesting on private property.
Thats great news. Had CN’s takeover of WV occured in the 1980s the line would be gone today.
Can’t wait to see a photo of the 'Sand Zephyr" at Poskin!
The protesters don’t like ANYTHING that produces good paying jobs for people who don’t have college degrees.
Meanwhile in Madison an iron ore mine that would employ hundreds with family supporting jobs gets shot down.
Jim… I completely agree. A lot of track is gone that should have never been torn up
Jim… I completely agree. A lot of track is gone that should have never been torn up
Awesome! Nice to hear some good news for a change.
What are you guys talking about? Study the issues…would you? Anyway… Lets talk about trains, leave your hatred out of this.
$35 million to reopen that line? Sounds awfully high to me. Just how do the railroads come up with these cost figures? Meaning, how do they keep books and allocate costs? Sorry, but I just don’t buy them shelling out of pocket that many millions of dollars to refurbish and reopen an existing line for use by freights.
I don’t know what it costs to re-install a grade crossing (presumably doing it properly) or replace lots of ties and possibly rail and possibly signals but it’s a fair distance and the loads will be heavy and maybe they don’t want to be limited to 10 mph. And I forgot the bridge repairs. Now as I understand it, the railroad is paying. So what’s the problem?
CN’s announcement should be viewed as positive. The line already exists, just in a dormant state. I have seen the section of track in question from vacation trips to the area along US highway 8. I know of the growth that needs to be cleared. It should be viewed as positive. The brush being cleared, I’m sure is being cut up or carted away by local residents for Winter heating considerations. As for the business itself, it is
best hoped that mining/loading of the sand could lead to something better and the line will remain open for future
generations as opposed to being abandoned once again. It
is also hoped that fledgling shortline operator, Wisconsin Northern (Progressive Rail) could benefit from this as well. It would be nice to see this small regional broaden it’s customer base and enhance it’s chance’s of survival in todays’ competitive railroad world.
CN’s announcement should be viewed as positive. The line already exists, just in a dormant state. I have seen the section of track in question from vacation trips to the area along US highway 8. I know of the growth that needs to be cleared. It should be viewed as positive. The brush being cleared, I’m sure is being cut up or carted away by local residents for Winter heating considerations. As for the business itself, it is
best hoped that mining/loading of the sand could lead to something better and the line will remain open for future
generations as opposed to being abandoned once again. It
is also hoped that fledgling shortline operator, Wisconsin Northern (Progressive Rail) could benefit from this as well. It would be nice to see this small regional broaden it’s customer base and enhance it’s chance’s of survival in todays’ competitive railroad world.