Has anyone else heard any rumors that UP may yet re-open the Royal Gorge / Tennessee Pass line for coal traffic?
I haven’t heard that…since I live in Missouri, but it would be great to see those two historical lines back and running. Lots of people think that they have been abandoned…but they are just dormant, so there’s hope!
It is one line. The Royal Gorge track is used by a regular tourist-sightseeing train with some local business run by a peddler out of Pueblo and back. The coal now goes via the Moffat. As far as know they do not need the extra capacity, except for this: What goest via the Moffat and then goes south to Texas has to use the “Joint Line” Denver - Colorado Springs - Pueblo, which not only is round-about, but is a very busy now single-track line, and that may be where the capacity constraint is that may mean reopening Tennessee Pass. I hope so.
Hmmmm…methinks this would be bad for me. If Tennessee Pass and the Royal Gorge route were re-opened, I can assure you nothing would ever get done at my house, because I’d be hanging out around Minturn, or Canyon City, or somewhere in their midst every weekend! [:D][:P][;)]
As a nine year old, I was very impressed with the Royal Gorge in 1964. As a 49 year old, I think I would return if trains began running.
ed
A person I met in Ogden told me last week that the BNSF is attempting to purchase this route from the UPRR [:o)][}:)]