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Escanaba & Lake Superior no longer reaches Lake Superior
Freight railroads are on to the rails to trails scam. Keep something in place and retain ownership of the right of way, just in case something pops up down the road. You never know when one of those evil capitalists will find a new way to make money and has need of a freight railroad’s services in order to make the venture succeed.
A sad event.
Interesting that the rail retains so much value.
How is retaining the right to sevice future customers a scam? In the meantime perhaps there is a recreational use though there is no mention of trail use in the article. You object to good rail being used under actual trains?
Any rail you can relay is rail you don’t have to buy.
E&LS would be better off leaving the rail in place and just rail-bank the line. It will be easier to restore service when it’s needed and get Gov’t approval to do so and keep the envrio-terrorists and NIMBY’s off their backs!
Truth being,… it might be sound to leave the track in place as suggested in some of the comments. Yes,… E&LS might have a better use for the rail elsewhere at present, but once removed, track is hard to relay. Not just the cost, but reclaiming the right of way, and local residents who may not wish to have the line back in spite of it helping the local economy. One positive example as of late was CN’s line from Ladysmith, Wisconsin extending West to Cameron and connection with Wisconsin & Northern (Progressive Rail). When CN purchased Wisconsin Central in 2001, this branch line was considered for abandonment due to lack of customers on the line. The rail was never pulled, although one of the highway crossings on US highway 8 was paved over. Recently, with the demand for the sand found in the local area, and it’s use in the oil operations in North Dakota, CN announced plans to reopen the line. No,… Escanaba & Lake Superiors decision to pull the rail may be to their benefit at present, but come back to haunt them in the future.
The land in the U.P. is full of abandoned rail lines. Many are used for snowmobile riding in the winter. and outside of the few remaining iron mines, the is not much manufacturing, either. add a relatively small population, a harsh climate, and this is one tough place to make a buck running trains. more abandoments are no doubt in the future