Interesting article. Thats the former C&NW route from North Milwaukee to Fond Du Lac they are referring to rebuilding as an alternative route.
Fox Valley & Lake Superior (WATCO) owns and operates the two active stub ends on the north and south ends of the Eisenbahn Trail.
The trail is 22 miles in length.
CN would almost certainly prefer to keep Amtrak off of their northwestern Transcon as much as possible.
They may be able to wrangle some stretches of double track between Fond du Lac and Oshkosh, Oshkosh and Neenah, and Kaukauna and Green Bay if they play their cards right.
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Agree totally on CN. I asked myself, various people in the know, via Email what happened to their occassional excursions up the former WC via the connection at Duplainville (back when it existed). They told me two basic reasons why those ended.
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CN management was uncooperative or difficult to work with.
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Track rationalization in Oshkosh, made passenger train layover there not as feasible as it used to be.
Specifically I was asking about the Amtrak charters to Oshkosh for the EAA fly-in from Chicago they used to run on occassion to raise money. My feelings on CN is they are a public relations disaster and they might seem to be business saavy but in my view CP is far better in the business saavy department and always will be. You can’t build a business or solid long-term customer relationship while at the same time giving the cold shoulder to anyone not wanting to ship frieght on your railroad.
Long-term that leads to a rather superficial client relationship in which you will find your business quickly abandoned with no consideration, once something better comes along. Reflecting back how you treated non-freight clients. I think CP understands this…CN clearly does not.
On the relay of new track on old roadbed. Never saw WisDOT do this before but they did bring back the line to Sheboygan Falls and a few other former frieght lines…
Agree on CN and its lack of cooperation with states wanting to restore passenger service. CN basically reneged on agreement to resume Hawkeye service on ex-IC Iowa divsion rails, Chicsgo to Rockford and on to Galena and Dubuque.