BusTalk

[Q65A]

I happened to find the following website a few days ago, and I thought you might find it interesting:
www.multimodalways.org
It appears to be either an academic site or part of some type of transportation-oriented "think tank"; it may be based in PA, given the keystone logo.
I haven't checked out this site in its entirety (it appears to be pretty comprehensive), but the Conrail links are interesting for their online track maps and ZTS maps (which are a very good study in Northeastern "industrial archaeology" since they detail the locations of lineside industries, many of which no longer are in operation today).

[Dieseljim]

It sure has a lot of neat stuff on it. That is how I obtained my copy of Conrail's April 1, 1976 Freight Schedule book, which has been a big help in some research projects of mine. This is a most valuable resource.

[HwyHaulier]

Q65A -

Take some brief looks at it. Apparently, an Ohio based project. Use of the faux PRR styled logo evidently traces to concerns stated on the
site about much of the old PRR Ohio services...

Beats me what they are trying to do. The site does package what looks much like generous rations of "blue sky" proposals...

......................Vern...............

[timecruncher]

Glancing over the site, it appears that it hasn't been updated in several years.

What the website appears to be trying to do is argue that all of the rail lines abandoned across Ohio since deregulation should have been looked at in far greater depth before ripping up the track. I cautiously agree.

The site tries to look like a 'scholarly' study of rail corridors, but it seems to dwell primarily on secondary branches that are long past public need as well as the Columbus, OH - Pittsburgh, PA former PRR/PC/Conrail "Panhandle" line.

Fact is, most of that route east of Columbus, OH is still intact and being operated by the Ohio Central Railroad and subsidiaries west of Wierton, PA. From Wierton to Pittsburgh, most of the line (formerly two and three-track heavy mainline railroad, mind you) is gone. A connection through the Wheeling & Lake Erie is possible between Steubenville and some point west of Pittsburgh on the former PRR mainline.

From Columbus, OH, to Dayton, OH the line is more or less intact and owned by Norfolk Southern. Back in Penn-Central days, the ex-PRR line from Columbus, OH to London, OH was kept and upgraded while the parallel NYC route between these two locations was abandoned. West of London, the ex-NYC line through Springfield was in far better condition and had fewer grades, so it was kept over the ex-PRR line through Xenia,OH, which was relatively slow railroad with significant grades.

West of Dayton, OH to Richmond, IN the line was allowed to deteriorate considerably during the late seventies, as most traffic was diverted over the ex-PRR line from Columbus through Bradford and Piqua to Richmond. The only regular movement on that portion of the line was Amtrak's dismal National Limited.

The freight line through Bradford and Piqua line, as well as the Panhandle between Richmond and Indianapolis, was extensively upgraded during the eighties, only to be ripped up in its entirety by Conrail after deregulation.

Much of the abandonment of rail lines that occurred in Indiana was due to exhorbitant property taxes and the existence of a "full crew law" in that state that required a 5-man crew on all freight trains. Property taxes in Ohio were (and are still) onerous as well, and this had as much effect on the wholesale abandonment of mainline rail corridors as did a shift in modal preference on the part of shippers.

I love a grassy rail branchline as a railfan for many reasons, but the sustainability of a mode that is far inferior to trucking in such areas is always in doubt.

That said, the abandonment of the "Panhandle" west of Dayton, OH along with the abandonment of the ex-B&O Ohio Division from Clarksburg, WV to Greenfield, OH rank among two of the most short-sighted moves by both Conrail and CSX in the past two decades of rail opreration. Both of these examples point to the need for an oversight of some sort from (I hate to say this) a government agency charged with looking after the public interest in maintaining these corridors of transport. If the railroad no longer needs the rail corridor, perhaps then a government agency can move in and railbank the line if there appears to be a future potential need for it. Regional and shortline railroads could then bid to operate these lines and keep them open for business.

Recently CSX has downgraded (and probably would love to abandon) the rest of that same ex-B&O line west of Cincinnati, OH to Vincennes, IN, but have run up against opposition by a more-wary state of Indiana as well as shipper groups. Through freight service over this line, on which a road freight can get from Cincinnati to East St. Louis in around 12 hours on a good day, has been diverted to an ex-L&N routing via Louisville, KY and Evansville, IN, up to Vincennes, then west. The latter routing is 150 miles longer, on a winding, single-track railroad, and takes 2-3 days under the best of conditions, and longer most of the time.

Nobody ever accuses CSX of being forward-thinking. After all, the railroad is controlled by hedge fund interests looking for fast monetery return on invested dollars. Who at those hedge funds gives a whit about public conveyance or public good?

timecruncher

[HwyHaulier]

timecruncher -

Thanks! You post some great stuff! I tend to post an initial report, done as fairly and objectively as I can muster. This instant item, at least at
a visceral level, quite bewildering...

Check out what the writers believe is an area of "Technical" inquiry. Comparative study of ton miles per gallon, rail vs. highway or whatever.
So, what's the point? So many cases of: An occasional truck passing thru to service shipments, or no train at all. And, modal fuel burn rates
are significant, because...?

Note, too, the somewhat (clearly) dated world view, also on that site. That is, we must consider "doubling" of inbound, ex West Coast Ports
into Ohio and East. Sigh! Is that right? How about the current thirty-five (35) percent decreases? How about the container trains don't run
every ten minutes, anymore?

...................Vern................