The following two articles are from local Montana papers about MRL not providing service on two branch lines due to Spring flooding. Neither line has a lot of traffic…in 2010, the total together for the two lines was less than 1 car per day. Nonetheless, it is blatantly apparent that the railroad is taking advantage of the situation to embargo the lines.# The railroad says there is not plan to repair the lines and reinstate service “until there are new business opportunities.” This would seem to be a Catch 22 because in the mean time, there can be no shipments in and out due to the embargo.The article about the Polson branch says, “local grain shippers got together and offered to help pay for the repairs on the flood-damaged tracks, but the railroad wasn’t interested.”
This seems odd. At what point can a railroad simply end service because they don’t want to fix deteriorated or damaged track? And why can they do this simply because of a force of nature? Evidently, the trains would still be running if the track hadn’t been damaged. And that local shippers offered to pay for repairs suggests that the damage is not all that significant.
If the railroad wishes to cease service, should it not apply for abandonment? The outage is evidently not catastrophic as was the case with the Port of Tillamook Bay which was taken out of service in December 2007 and is still out of service. Where is the line drawn between what could be repaired and what cannot?
The links are:
MRL’s Bitterroot rail line no longer in service; business owners struggle to find altern
The logical thought, is that the line loses money with every car it moves. If the line were a money-maker, the railroad would be fixing the line. The fact that they’re not wanting to fix it, even if the shipper pays for the repairs, means to me that it’s a real money losing proposition for the railroad.
There was a TRAINS article from a couple of years back (?) mentioned that from time to time MRL would use a line other than their main line (over NULLAN Pass/Tunnel) to get around traffic slowdowns). The article’s subject was the oil can trains that MRL run/ran(?) . Because df delivery commitments they would reroute this train to keep it moving as scheduled, and utilized a lightly used branch line to keep it moving.
Are either of these lines the ones mentioned in the re-routing process or do they just run to a location and not connect back on their Mainline?
Murphy: You’re thinking of the Gas Local between Missoula and Thompson Falls which runs over Evaro Hill and the 2.2 percent grade rather than along the Clark Fork River (between DeSmet and Paradise). The lines that have been embargoed are two stub end branches, Dixon to Polson, and Missoula to Darby.
This is probably true, and I would think few would dispute it. But it was this way before the washouts. What I am curious about is at what point and by what criteria is a line allowed to be embargoed? The washouts appear to be relatively minor. Still, they’re not worth fixing. So why were they not embargoed earlier, say, because of a broken rail or something even more minor? Am just curious as to whether there needs to be a certain degree of damage to allow an embargo or what…