Try freeloading on railroad owned rights of way. It has become a serious issue, electric companies condemning their way nor across, but rather along railroad corridors. Utilities being what utilities are (cheap, IMHO), they condemn their way into railroad corridors to avoid R/W acquisition costs and the time required to clear a corridor. When the time comes later for the railroad to add additional track or go under the wireline to serve new business, guess who doesn’t want to relocate (or pay the associated costs).??? Railroads had control of their corridors, over the past few decades that control has been slowly eroded by well financed political means. And while they are at it, the utilities (wireline and pipeline) ignore the minimum safety design standards by hiding behind the condemnation actions and blowing of railroad/AREMA minimum standard.
MC
Enlighten us a little more. Do the utilities pay rent for the easements? If they pay, then the RR should benefit at least somewhat. Another thought. Are fiber-optics buried along the ROW?
Will someone please remind MC that it is precisely the utilities that are keeping the railroads in business (along with Montana farmers[;)])? Or perhaps he hasn’t yet made the connection that (1)the number one reason railroads are still in business is due to coal (40% of rail traffic) and (2)the fact that said coal is being used to generate the electricity that needs those new transmission lines.
So when your local utility requests to use railroad ROW for new transmission lines, just stop naggin’ for a change and be grateful you’re still in business despite the fact that the railroads treat their domestic customers like crap.
Oh yeah, and did we mention those transmission lines are open access?[:-,]
As usual FM, you remain clueless. (After this wonderful little diatribe, you continue to feign ignorance of “Socialism, thinly veiled”…you certainly are a piece of work.) Please go crawl back under your rock.<
(1) Utilities do not pay rent for easements. Paying “rent” for any type of easement is highly unusual. License agreement is a different story. An analogy is that your neighbor can do whatever he wants on half of your driveway and you have no say. Not the utility’s problem if you can’t get from the street to your garage. (If it were a license, the railroad has the right to get the utility out of their way [specific perfomance or breach of contract with consequences])
(2) Fiber Optics are there by contract. Railroads typically get rent of line plus dedicated cable pairs. F/O/C owner and the railroad agree to terms of a contract that specifies who is responsible for what. You don’t see that with easements. Railroads learned the hard way that some of what they agreed to was a mistake, especially the lines
I am sure there is alot of politics and money involved on both sides but from a common sense point I would tend to agree to keeping vital modes physically seperated.
There is probably a grainy old film strip from the 1950s extolling the “Marvels of Tomorrow” showing a high speed train running down the center of an interstate highway with high voltage power lines overhead and a pipeline below-great in a perfect world…
until the pipeline leaks and the fumes make a driver drowsy and he swerves onto the tracks derailing the ethanol train that takes out one of the towers dropping 200,000 volt lines that torch the whole county.
OK that’s a little dramatic but you get my point and that’s in every day America, if you factor in hostile intent, well …don’t put all your eggs in one basket and don’t put all your utilites in one right of way/easement.
As usual FM, you remain clueless. (After this wonderful little diatribe, you continue to feign ignorance of “Socialism, thinly veiled”…you certainly are a piece of work.) Please go cra
What are we talking about here? The initial posts seemed to refer to electric railways (subways, etc.) while other posts are refering to utility company power lines. Is there a newspaper article on this? Where did this come from?
It seems like the NYSI, wants to build a 400,000 volt power line from upstate NY to NYC using NYS&W right of way, along with other established power line routes. People along the way are concerned about the electo-magnetic radiation. The congressman is using the possible safety aspect of placing the high voltage, high megawatt lines next to the rails, as one way of blocking the project. Just my opinion on this.
Edit. I picked up some info on the UTU website and Newsday magazinel.
Modern easements routinely include an “Easement Agreement” which specifies in as much detail as much as the easement grantor and/or grantee agree to include, including “who is responsible for what.”
An easement can be, and these days typically would be, as much a contract as a license is.
The Movie " The Distiqueshed gentleman" with Eddie Murphy dealt with this issue of Eletromag Radiation…
It is all a bunch of croc and has been proven to be so…I Mean NJ Transit Riders have been riding under high volatage wire for years without any problems…I Grew up next to a old RR Right of way that was sold for a power line and I am OK[alien][:)]
Dodger. I kinda agree with you, but I have seen Electro-magnetic forces at work. About 50 years ago on the USS Hanson, we had a high power radar mounted on the 02 level aft. When we were nearby on the 03 level, we could hold indicator lights in our hand. When the antenna would sweep by, the bulbs would light up, even in the daytime. Scary huh? I do not remember any numbers, but as the distance increases from the source, the force weakens significantly. Perhaps that is why high voltage lines are on tall towers. Here is a link to look at. It may have been written by someone who is now a MMGW scientist.