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Pacific Railroad Society runs excursion on endangered Fillmore & Western
I know we’ve been through this before, and so has the recent article in TRAINS, but isn’t the county considering all the movie related revenue the railroad brings into the area? It’s more than just a tourist railroad. It’s akin to a freight hauling short-line that happens to run some tourist trains.
Dumb F & W is finally getting off the ground and now the county wants it back even though they don’t have any money to build a commuter line
Maybe there is a point here in favor of Ventura County, if they really want commuter rail. Perhaps a fair settlement with Filmore & Western would involve Ventura paying part of the cost of relocating F&W to another rail line nearby?
I am all in favor of increased revenue from the line, but The F&W is the best thing to come along since the line was a viable alternative to the Coast Line. I trust reasonable negotiations will be had eventually.
What has the Ventura County Transportation Commission done towards establishing the “future commuter rail corridor”, or any sort of revenue-producing operation on the line? Terminating the F&W lease just leaves the county holding the entire bag with no revenue generated. Something should always be better than nothing… or is there more to the story which needs to be brought to light?
Apparently, The Ventura County Transportation Commision"s Excutive Director Warren Kettle has an axe to grind with F&W’s President Dave Wilkenson. It seems to me that Mr’ Kettle isn’t bothered about destroying the benefits from the railroad to The City of Fillmore’s businesses they acquire from riders that ride the trains. Mr Kettle is very short sighted. Why hee wanted to rip out the former Santa Paula branch in order to create a bike path!
One of the comments I read about was that some in government want to turn this line into a bike trail.
Ventura county abandoned the connection to Saugus years ago in favor of building homes, from what I understand the chairperson that is spearheading terminating the lease will stand to profit greatly (This is from some of the locals that live in Ventura County).
Ventura county abandoned the connection to Saugus years ago in favor of building homes, from what I understand the chairperson that is spearheading terminating the lease will stand to profit greatly (This is from some of the locals that live in Ventura County).
We had a similar situation in Peoria where a potentially viable freight line, which a local short line wanted to buy from the city, was torn out to make a trail. Once the trail advocates smell blood, they will stop at nothing. The F & W needs to fight this with everything they have, or they will have to find a new home.
We had a similar situation in Peoria where a potentially viable freight line, which a local short line wanted to buy from the city, was torn out to make a trail. Once the trail advocates smell blood, they will stop at nothing. The F & W needs to fight this with everything they have, or they will have to find a new home.