Reasons for line abandonments

At the time there was no traffic and bean counters who make the decisions can only see as far as their noses.

Makes you think of WWII....Railroads and branches abandoned during the Depression, and THEN...Exponential demand to move material, people, and equipt. all over the country...Bust to boom.

Property taxes.

Labor costs, RofW maintenance, derailment costs, Rob's cited property taxes, all outweigh revenue generated, despite heroic efforts with all-in-one train gas electric cars, 1 man 44T diesels, et al.  All industries, like auto/farm eqpt dealerships, restaurants, retail outlets, etc, trim their money losers. Railroads were forced to maintain severe money losing branch lines due to political pressure; "the railroads can absorb the losses, and can continue providing a public service, because they make so much money hauling freight" - - - until they didn't, and produced large scale bankruptcies/abandonments.   Retail is the current contracting major business.

I live in the Pacific Northwest and what killed so many rail lines here was redundancy. The Northern Pacific, Great Northern, Milwaukee Road and the Spokane, Portland and Seattle all built East/West mains across the Cascades. Only the SP&S and UP avoided the drama of mountain railroading that the other three endured.

Almost everywhere you go, if you see one line still there, you can almost count on another competing railroad either came through the same town, or nearby.

By the 1980s, with slackening traffic, mergers and some roads wallowing on debt and unable to maintain their rights of way (especially the Milwaukee Road), there were huge abandonments all over the state. Stampede Pass was abandoned fully but later rebuilt when times got better for what became BNSF. There are still three major crossings of the Cascades, but so many communities that had more than one railroad coming through town, now have none.

You're going to see this more so in some places than others. For example, I grew up in North Florida and only a few branch lines here and there and a few short lines have folded up. There wasn't a wholesale slaughter of rail lines in the 70s and 80s like there were in other places. In the Northeast, they had a similar deal than in the Northwest, in that several lines would serve the same areas. The mergers in the 60s and 70s killed a bunch of these redundant lines, as well.

Just a guess, but if SF owned the track and then abandoned it, wouldn't BNSF be able to be put it back like the rails to trails in reverse? I was under the impression a railroad could re-claim the right-of-way.

Abandonment often makes sense because of duplication in infrastructure, lack of traffic and profitability, and changing markets.  It is unreasonable to think that every mile of track should be preserved intact for prosperity.  While it is true that some regions are finding new resources along long abandoned right of ways, in most cases there truly is nothing to support keeping the track or the property.  While this may be unpopular with railfans, the railroads are in business to make a profit.  Removing excess capacity and getting the scrap value from it was one of three or four major reasons Conrail went from a decrepit system to a modern and profitable system that made it so desirable for NS and CSX. 

Leveraged buyouts by people uninterested in railroading, but are interested in selling valuable real estate. This happened with the Reading and the New York Central yards in Manhatten.

What I don't understand is how short line operations can be profitable on lines previously abandoned by larger operations. I don't think they can.

Matt Kirsch posted:

What I don't understand is how short line operations can be profitable on lines previously abandoned by larger operations. I don't think they can.

Lots of "short lines" are non-union, for one thing. Plus, they may also be a Designated Operator, selected by the state government they operate in, thus they did NOT have to pay for laying the track nor pay real-estate taxes on the infrastructure. 

Hot Water posted:

Matt Kirsch posted:

What I don't understand is how short line operations can be profitable on lines previously abandoned by larger operations. I don't think they can.

Lots of "short lines" are non-union, for one thing. Plus, they may also be a Designated Operator, selected by the state government they operate in, thus they did NOT have to pay for laying the track nor pay real-estate taxes on the infrastructure. 

Furthermore, most shortlines don't have the overhead costs of large management departments, levels of managements, offices in high rent districts, or even the need to maintain track to class I standards.  When you have one train a day or less, there isn't much need for CTC or even signals. 

Hurricane Angus for a lot of the east coast.

Fear of Competition took out a major line through central PA. Conrail didn't want CP to get direct access to the area. It was redundant and Conrail didn't want some one to have it.  

There is a lengthy abandoned line in Texas that has not been razed, the former KCM&O line from Ft Stockton to Alpine to Presidio, TX.  I believe it is owned by TxDOT and leased to Texas Pacifico Ltd., a part of Grupo Mexico.  The KCM&O portion from Coleman Jct to San Angelo to Ft Stockton is enjoying the aforementioned oilfield traffic.  The southernmost portion sees nothing but the occasional hirailer, but it is "sitting on GO" for something better to come along. When NAFTA was born some visionaries thought this line would blossom, but it never occurred. In fact, the international bridge at Presidio burned in 2008 and has not been replaced.  Yet, there are still murmurings that this line has great potential.  I have travelled the Mexico portion from end to end (Ojinaga to Los Mochis, Sinaloa) and the 86 tunnels it features may not have the clearance for double-stack port traffic. 

CSX FAN posted:

Hurricane Angus for a lot of the east coast.

 

Fear of Competition took out a major line through central PA. Conrail didn't want CP to get direct access to the area. It was redundant and Conrail didn't want some one to have it.  

Hurricane Agnes occurred in 1972 prior to Conrail.  It worsened the position of bankrupt Penn Central and caused severe damage to the Erie Lackawanna which had a chance to be a true competitor to Conrail prior to this event.  The formation of Conrail was hastened by this hurricane.

Matt Kirsch posted:

What I don't understand is how short line operations can be profitable on lines previously abandoned by larger operations. I don't think they can.

It depends on marketing. This is where Rail America and G&W have done well. They can buy up a branch a large RR doesn’t want to mess with, then go into the communities they serve to determine what potential for new traffic exists. Modern RRs are mostly about unit trains and long hauls from one big facility to another. A small RR can focus on more individual needs of smaller customers, and work hard to develop new opportunities for the areas they serve. The Puget Sound & Pacific Railroad is an excellent example of what a short line can do, to make a profitable operation out of what the Class I had long since given up on.

Folks probably underestimate the cost of labor in the operation of  branch lines. Due to Class 1 railroad labor agreements requiring full crews, trains would venture out on a branch with 4, or so, men.......to service 1 or 2 passengers and 3 or 4 freight cars. Perhaps a forgotten term is "featherbedding".

What I have not seen mentioned is more efficient forms of transportation.  Many of the rail lines that have been abandoned in northwest Ohio were originally built because of the Great Black Swamp.  Before the swamp was drained it was difficult, if not impossible to travel between communities because of the non-existent roads.  The railroads provided a means to transport people and goods between communities.  As roads became better and more people had access to automobiles the need for local passenger service declined. The main customers left along the rails were grain elevators, coal yards and other agricultural business.  Due to the limited number of car loads that these businesses used, many of them could be better served by trucks.  No passenger service+no local freight service=abandonment.

Tom

Ohio city, Oh was served by no less than three different railroads. Today there are no tracks, just empty abandoned right of way.

Ken

That Santa Fe line mentioned by the OP served a whole lot of nothing.  I worked for Pennzoil's Duval mining division in the early to mid 1980's when our sulfur mine at Rustler Springs, TX was still in operation.  Other than our mine, I can't remember industry of any sort from there up to Carlsbad where Santa Fe served all of the potash mines.  You would have had to have one heck of a crystal ball in the 60's, 70's or 80's to have foreseen the level of oil exploration and production that has transformed that area.

Curt

Conrail's Sayreville Secondary is a line in NJ that has been in place since 1888 (Or 1889 give or take). Anyways the old Raritan River main has one customer beyond Ryders Lane. There might be a scrapper going toward East Brunswick and South River. Silverline Windows is the only customer beyond Milltown and if they stop receiving plastic pellets then I'm sure Conrail will abandon the tracks west of Ryders Lane.  The worst case scenario is if the South River swing bridge and everything west of it gets torn up. But hey, progress must happen. If it isn't economical to run that portion of the line then oh well.