On the front page of the Kalamazoo Gazette there was a story that speculated that Norfolk Southern will sell all the Michigan lines to a short-line operator. The concern was that a short-line operator will not be able to invest in the tracks. Then the traffic will be diverted onto nearby Interstate-94. causing congestion.
Does any of this hold weight?
Why not sell the entire right of way, including trackage rights over the Amtrak section, to Canadian Pacific. This way CN will have a true competitor.
I still am puzzled by the article. The Michigan Department of Transportation people make Watco sound like they are operating the whole company on a shoestring budget. There seems to a lack of communication and study on the part of MDOT officials, but once an MDOT official has a notion in their head–it is stuck. Some MDOT officials sound just like the pointy haired Boss in the Dilbert comic strip.
the rumor has it that it will be leased and not sold so as if they sell it they will have to give the employees a certain amount of notice but by leasing it they don’t, I am worried as I am still low on the senority roster and have heard that we may have around 100 employees come to the elkhart area
CP isn’t interested. West of Kalamazoo the sidings are short, and for CP would probably require the same signalling equipment as Amtrak uses. At least east of K’zoo it’s doubletrack making Amtrak less of a problem. but the line could really use investment which NS doesn’t want to make, and Amtrak and MIDOT can’t afford to make. All it would take is major storm damage to cause NS to dump the line. All parties are looking at the costs to maintain the line to standards for Amtrak passenger trains, one day NS will decide that it is not worth it to them.
I just moved from the Kalamazoo area. And most all of the line between there and B.C. is single track. It starts about a mile or so east from where the line separates from CN trackage and continues to a point about two miles from the yard in Kzoo. There isn’t a siding that I know about on this stretch, though there are some areas of the line that aren’t readily accessible. Someone else might have more insight on that…
About 15 years ago all of the lines on the Conrail-Amtrak line from Detroit-Lansing-Battle Creek-Kalamazoo-Chicago used to be double tracked. Now that cost cutting has taken effect most has been single tracked. Nice for them to cut expenses, but now it might not be attractive to CP or CSX unless they used it in conjunction to the Holland-Grand Rapids-Lansing-Flint CSX line that CP operates over.
CP only runs one train per day, three days per week over the CSX line, this is the minimum amount specified in the contract. The majority of CP’s traffic uses the former Wabash from Detroit to Butler, IN and then the Water Level route from there into Chicago.
Watco cannot afford to keep the line up and running.
Amtrak cannot run passengers due to all the 10mph slow orders on the rail, and eventually gives up the lease from kalamazoo to Chicgao. The NS recovers the line from that lease.
The state of Michigan has to fit the bill to fix up the rail.
Then watco gives it back to NS.
NS now owns a straight shot from chicgao to Detroit and the line is all fixed up.
Prime rail people! Now they can sell it to the CP for a high price.
Anyway, that is just my opinion, cause if the line gets sold, I’ll lose my job.
The main reason CP moved is that they could only get haulage rights over CSX. In other words CSX provided the crews, when they were available. Which in turn means that CP trains wound up sitting in Grand Rapids, MI a lot waiting for rested crews. Under the new arrangement with NS, CP has trackage rights and CP provides the crews, with a crew change at Elkhart, IN.
One thing that might have saved the former NYC-PC-CR line from Chicago To Detroit is that there was enough right of way to have a single track for freight only, a center lane for sidings, and a single track for passenger only. The Freight only and Passenger only tracks would not be connected.
Why not that plan so the right of way serves its full purpose?
Is there too much of a derailment risk from freight to even have it near the AMTRAK high speed passenger line? The high-speed passenger line is only on the western side of Michigan.
Why is the high-speed upgrade just half-way done across Michigan?