Leo,
Just to avoid confusion the "Joint Line" is the Orin Line.
Denver to Pueblo is the "Pikes Peak Subdivision".
This is of course in "Railroad Speak".
As to the Front Range issue it is interesting to talk about
but if the Cities/State were willing to buy Denver to
Cheyenne why would you need any other trackage built?
The Ft Collins switching is already contracted out to the
GWR so Busch's business could just move over to the
UP on a haulage basis. Other that that I don't see the
need for any other changes. Most of the tonnage from
Casper North moves via Sterling anyway.
The 2001 density figure for Cheyenne to Denver is 7 MGT.
UP's Cheyenne to Denver line handled 27 MGT last year.
Don't think it would be too hard to get trackage rights
or haulage for that kind of volume even if it had to move
that way.
As far as Colorado Springs and Pueblo I didn't know the
coal trains were a problem and they would still have the
UP's trains. Colorado Springs got rid of the AT&SF's
mainline trackage just at the beginning of the coal train
era so they are probably pretty smug about it. In reality
the coal volume South of Denver has been pretty much
static for the past few years as more PRB business gets
moved over to the UP and down through Kansas and
Oklahoma. I live near the old MKT and most of the coal
traffic I see either used to go BN or could go BNSF now.
The Cities/State just spent an awful lot of money building
the BNSF/UP a triple track corridor on the South side of
Denver and I don't think that anyone would want to just throw
that away.
Russ
----- Original Message -----
From: <qutlx1@a...>
To: <brhslist@Y...>
Sent: Saturday, 02 November, 2002 21:10
Subject: [BRHSlist] Front Range LIne
> The latest issue of Progressive Railroads had an article about the BNSF
> working w/various Colorado Govt agencies to sell them the line between
Denver
> and Cheyenne.
> The long range plan is to build a new line farther east from say
Brush/Akron
> south to a point below Denver where this line would connect to the joint
> Line. The old line would be used for commuter/transit. Even longer range
plan
> is to extend this new line all the way to LaJunta. Freeing Colo
> Springs,Pueblo,etc from the endless coal trains.
> Leo
>
>
>
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>
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