Anyone else suspect that UPs slide closure had something to do with this? [2c]
I would suspect the money for Roseburg has been turned back on and the shippers using the Siskyou line have a time limit to put up or shut up. If that time limit is passed without traffic building to a decent level the plug could be pulled very fast. The time limit may be tied to the completion of the Roseburg yard project.
Is UP still not using the siskyou??
I do not think the slide has anything to do with this decision. To the best of my knowledge UP is not using this line as a bypass, which if true tells you all you need to know about its value.
Mac
The Siskiyou Line makes me think of the old Northwestern Pacific in California.
It’s trouble-prone and expensive to maintain, but vital to local shippers (lumber companies).
The local shippers on the NWP are offering insufficent traffic to pay the costs of operation, maintenance, and capital on the NWP, and there are virtually no carloads being offered to the CORP on the Siskiyou Line between Ashland, Oregon, and Black Butte, California, the segment that would potentially be closed.
If one was to assess the costs of excess highway maintenance, air pollution, highway congestion, and other public costs of using truck, it might justify state expenditure to subsidize operation and maintenance of the NWP. The Siskiyou rail traffic between Ashland and Springfield Junction, Oregon, will continue to move by rail, just via Eugene, increasing cycle times by maybe 24 hours per carload, not a huge cost.
RWM
I think the shippers that have been complaining loudest are sending loads from just south of the section proposed for cosure to destinations between Ashland and Springfield.