When ConRail was formed, the USRA was searching for a way to have competition for rail traffic into the Port of New York. In the end, all they could come up with was the Delaware and Hudson Railroad. N&W and Chessie didn’t want to, or couldn’t get involved, and all the rest of the northeast lines were in bankruptsy.
What did D&H have going for it, that it could remain solvent, while all lines around it were going bankrupt?
Prettier paint?
I ought to know this better than I do, especially the financial and capital structure aspects since I was interested in such things and interviewed with them and was offered an entry-level position in 1975 - and one of my friends was working his way up the ladder there then, too. But anyway - perhaps it was more a case of what the ‘‘The D&H’’ didn’t have going for them, unlike most of the others, that made the difference, as follows:
No commuter passenger operations;
Only 1 daily long-distance passenger train - the Adirondack, from Albany to Montreal, and back;
No freight terminal operations in the big northeastern cities;
A mostly single-track main line by then, so not a lot of redundant tracks to maintain;
Only a few branch lines, most of which were on their last legs by then;
More importantly, it was not Penn Central. Instead, the D&H was an integral part to the only rail alternative to the crumbling Penn Central empire for the remaining rail shippers in New England - MEC/ B
D&H may not have been in bankruptcy at the time, but not by much, it eventually wound up in Chapter 11, anyway. Chessie and Southern stayed out in large part because of the labor costs they would have had to absorb. Also keep in mind that those carriers would have owned the lines while D&H was granted trackage rights only.
Another fact, Conrail was an amalgamation of six bankrupt carriers: PC, EL, RDG, LV, L&HR and CNJ. B&M was also bankrupt but elected to re-organize on its own and stay out of Conrail and Ann Arbor was legislated out of Conrail at the request of the State of Michigan.
I also find it interesting that the USRA, who had to scramble to find a competitor for ConRail, only gave D&H trackage rights. Since USRA was writing the rules, why didn’t they write them so that D&H could service online business as well?
That answers it. The D&H was the only line remaining that could gain access to NYC.
Well, no, that doesn’t answer it. PC, EL, RDG, LV, L&HR and CNJ were ConRail. The USRA was trying to find a way to provide a competitive alternative to ConRail into the Port of New York.
My question is: What did D&H have going for it, that it could remain solvent, while all lines around it were going bankrupt?
A big silver ball.
[tup] A Shiny Silver Sphere, technically. [(-D]
They had a disco party?
I really think Paul North answered the question but I always found it silly that the D&H was offered up as viable competition to the Conrail system in the east. Isn’t it true that the traffic that they were able to siphon off amounted to roughly one train per day each way in and out of Potomac Yard in Washington, DC? That’s real alternative service for you.
The D&H was nearly dead on it’s feet in 1976, but they had a real go-getter CEO - Bruce Sterzing. By offering up to be the competition to Conrail in the east, the D&H got a shot in the arm - some newer power from the RDG and LV plus some money to go get some new power on their own, plus some money to fix up the Sunbury Line. I was probably a “live to fight another day” bet. It didn’t pan out. The D&H went under a few years later. The D&H then was operated by the NYS&W under a directed service order until it was sold to Guilford. Guildford later sold it to the CP.
That’s a good question, but I doubt it would have mattered much. There was very little on line business on the routes the D&H trackage rights routes.
Murphy - To clarify this a little bit: Is the time frame for your question mainly up until the formation and start-up of ConRail on April 1, 1976, and/ or afterwards ?
ValleyX -Yep, about a train a day, or less, to Wash., D.C. - on any of those D&H trackage rights routes - is about all I ever remember seeing or reading about. Even now I believe that CPR doesn’t run much more than that into NYC via the MetroNorth line along the Hudson River, or to/ through Allentown to either Bethlehem or NYC, or to the Philadelphia port operations, etc.
Murphy and oltmannd - Really, what the USRA and its Final System Plan was attempting to do with the grant of trackage rights was ‘handicapping’ the CR vs. D&H competition to give the D&H a fighting chanc
What alternative line did the USRA have? The soon-to-be-bankrupt D&H was the only line left, outside Conrail. The SusyQ? The L&NE? The O&W?
I must be broadcasting in AM and you’re receiving in FM? There was no alternative. That’s why they picked D&H. It wasn’t one of the bankrupt lines, and it could, theoretically at least, be shown as a competitor to ConRail, so ConRail wouldn’t be the only railroad into the Port of New York.
My question was:
What did D&H have going for it, that it could remain solvent, while all lines around it were going bankrupt? PDN seemed to have the answer in a post above.