The headline says it all: What U.S. rail line would you revive that is currently abandoned? Why would you? It can be either narrow or standrad gauge. For me, it would be the former D&RG Chama to Durango line 'cause you could once again travel all narrow gauge between Antonito and Silverton.
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The CSX (formar SAL/SCL/SBD) line from Atlanta-Birmingham (now the Silver Comet Trail) and the Western Maryland route from Cumberland across the Allegheny Mountains into Pennsylvania (now the Great Allegheny Passage trail) would be the first two projects in my Trails-to-Rails master plan. No viable economic reasons and nothing against the trails, but I would just like to railfan those lines and the trains were long gone by the time I got into the hobby. Jamie
Bring back the Modoc !!!
OK, mabee not justifiable, but I miss it. Not that the Modoc Northern isn’t doing a good job, but the loss of through freights is a real bummer.
The Royal Gorge Route - Tennessee Pass line in Colorado.
Also the Milwakee Road’s Pacific Extention, and the Pheonix line (west end).
And as long as we are dreaming…How about the Carson & Colorado, Tonopah & Tidewater and the Las Vegas & Tonopah. Or mabee the UP’s Wells branch [:P]
ALL OF THEM !!!
No question. The P & E. Because it goes right by my workplace.
I would resurrect the former Pennsy/Penn Central/GTW line between Grand Rapids and Muskegon, Michigan. It’s now a totally fantastic bike trail (the Musketawa Trail, named for Muskegon and Ottawa Counties). But Muskegon’s only railroad is now the Michigan Shore Railroad (someone correct me if I have the name wrong, please), whose main lines were spun off from CSX–their only connection to the national network is via CSX at West Olive, Michigan, and they use trackage rights over CSX to interchange cars at Holland–with CSX.
This isn’t meant to bash CSX, but there’s a potential problem with the small, and very old, movable (swing) bridge over the Grand River at Grand Haven/Ferrysburg. Were that bridge to be lost to anything, Muskegon would be cut off–completely. I’m not sure that the bridge can handle 286K-GRL freight cars. A line directly to Grand Rapids might give the shortline a connection with NS as well as CSX, not to mention two other shortline railroads that serve GR.
The Over Seas Railroad to Key West, Florida. How cool would it be to sit on a boat in the Bay of Florida and watch trains fly across the water for seven miles?
[4:-)]
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Rio Grande Southern, It would immediately be a tourist line.
Link all three (RGS, D&S, Cumbries & Toltec) of them in Durango and Wow what a tourist railroad.
I would travel to Colorado to see train on Tennessee Pass.
Locally, it would be a toss up between the Erie Lackawanna line from Chicago to NYC and the Kankakee Belt Line from Wheatfield, In. to south Bend. I think the KBelt would see some traffic. The EL would just be fun to watch. Another local line would be the EJE to Porter.
Great topic.
ed
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Probably the most useful railroad that was lost was the Chicago, North Shore & Milwuakee.
You could get on a train running the Chicago Loop (Downtown elevated trains for those of you in Rio LInda) and go to Kenosha, Racine, and into downtown Milwaukee. Some of those trains even had a bar/grill car on the Chicago “L”.
Finish your business day, then go home on electric high speed trains while enjoying martinis and burgers. (In 1962 such things were acceptable.) In contrast, to drive I-94/I-294 in a Chicago snow storm is to know terror.
The North Shore lasted until 1963.
I like the idea of resurrecting the Wells NV/Twin Falls ID UP line already mentioned here. There is something about the remote linkage out in the middle of nowhere that is very appealing.
The KCMO would be a useless but fascinating revival. I could once again watch a long train of wheat hoppers in Orienta, Oklahoma, with the buttes of the Glass Mountains in the distance.
The Midland Valley would be near the top of my list. Now that the bison are back at the Tall Grass prairie, one could photograph those enormous beasts next to the tracks while a Wichita - Fort Smith train glides past.
But my top wish would be for restoration of the old Frisco Kiamichi line, winding through the rugged mountains of SE Oklahoma.
The line that went from the west coast to Hawaii.
Big Picture: The Milwaukee Road’s Pacific Coast Extension (with an electrified “gap”); maybe the Rock Island. I never would have thought of the North Shore, though, Greyhounds! Thanks!
Small Picture: The Green Bay & Western (with carferrys); the C&NW lines through my hometown.
Agreed! And also agree with the other posters regarding the Tenneesse Pass.
Looking at the economics of various restorations gives a completely different picture. The Atlanta - Birmingham silver comet trail was not time or grade competetive with NS’s. It would be better to double track NS’s line by CSX with a joint use agreement. That would speed up Atlanta - BHM intermodal. . The silver comet abandoment was done without any idea of the traffic that CSX now runs from Atlanta to Birmingham. At least 8 CSX round trips a day (3 - 5 intermodal). Another CSX loss is the Raleigh - Petersburg, Va. SAL which may already slated for rebuild by the HSR proposal. Richmond - Hamlet ACL is very congested and is the main delay point for AMTRAK Florida service.The B&O line from Parkersburg - Cincinatti - St. Louis might be another for speedier intermodal.
I would like to see a discussion of new routes that are needed to mitigate weather exposure. One is an alternative to the runs through New Orleans. Another is the exposure of CSX in the Charleston - Savannah -Jacksonville corridor.Another is NYP - Bos. Another is the need for a flood proof routes through the midwest.
Darn! You took mine. In terms of economically viable and needed, this has got to be in everyone’s top three, if not the undisputed king. I assume this line never hauled significant freight like the South Shore?
My second vote would be the Rock Island line into Memphis. Some people on here say it is not now needed by BNSF, but I have heard several industry people saying BNSF is kicking themselves for not acquiring it when they had the chance. Thus, I think it would also be economically viable.
Finally, Ed’s IC line to Evansville. Ed and I have a running discussion as to whether it would be viable today . . . and I would like to win that bet . . . .
Gabe
Isn’t that like saying every business in New Orleans or the southern Atlantic coast needs an alternate location in the midwest that they can evacuate to when a storm comes through? While weather related disruptions can be huge, it seems like the costs of maintaining new alternate routes would be much, much greater than any relatively infrequent catastrophic events. These alternate routes would basically be excess capacity during the other 99% of the time when there is not a weather disruption. Plus the cost of just constructing these new routes would probably exceed the losses of decades of weather related issues, so you would be looking at a long, long time before these new routes would be cost effective. Jamie
EDIT: Besides, my desire for CSX to resurrect the ATL-BHM line is strictly from a railfan perspective since I would love to see big time mainline trains along that line that I never got a chance to see.
In the Northeast there is lots of room for redevelopment. The EL lines from NJ west then the LV line from Waverly, NY to Buffalo would utilize two great routes thrown aside by CR (LV best route from Southern Tier of NY to Buffalo, EL route west from Hornel circumvents Buffalo congestion and winter snows. As a further note, the LV line is virtyally intact if greatly downgraded from Oak Island, NJ to Waverly, NY in the hands of regional and shortlines west of Allentown, PA). The CNJ route across NJ, abandoned by CR and NJT when I78 was built…this line could help alleviate bottleneck congestion. Of course the DL&W across NJ and the Poconos is being rejuvinated for passenger service, Scranton to Binghamton, NY intact under CP ownership; and the former Erie Delaware Div. from Port Jervis to Bingahmton, NY under the ownership of NS but leased to Central New York Railirad of the Delaware Otsego System with New York, Susquehanna and Western Rairoad operating it at minimum through service (Morristown and Erie is now operator of branch from Lackawaxen to Honesdale, PA working to increase traffic, thus increase interchange with ? Susquehanna? CNY? NS? Wonder if the NY and Harlem would be worth rejuvinating north of Wassaic on to Chatham and into Albany…commuter route, back up to Hudson line traffic problems for Amtrak but also for MNRR in some ways (or instead of Albany, east to Housatonic RR and south to Danbury for MNRR regional operations?) Up downeast, Portland, Me to Conway, NH then on to Canada on the former MC Mountian Div. could open Portland port to more traffic. After all that is said and done, how about returning the second, third, and fourth tracks to service along the former NYC, PRR, B&O, LV, EL, etc. mains in use to increase the capacity which is forecast over the next 25 to 75 years!