Portland Waterfront Rail Ops (Yard 8, Intermodal, etc)

With the return of the Pan Am/NBSR Interchange point to Mattawamkeag, in the last couple of years ( instead of Northern Maine Jct ), the good amount of traffic presently handled between Mattawamkeag / NMJ, should certainly justify in itself, track upgrades for 25 mph at least. Another scenario perhaps would be Irving taking over the Keag - Waterville section .... I'm sure the necessary track improvements would then get done.

Not even close. The average of maybe 30 loads a day is never going to pay to upgrade the line to 25. That's 110 miles Keag-Waterville, running 30 loads/day above Old Town and maybe 35/day from there down. No where near the revenue needed to justify a multiple tens of millions dollar upgrade for wholesale replacement of 50 track miles of rail.

With some stone and surfacing the roadbed will be in decent shape, and a solid 10, but the rail is century old 85# that has been completely beat to hell.

KSmitty wrote:but the rail is century old 85# that has been completely beat to hell.

So, roughly the same shape as the rotting RoW behind my apartment building?

KSmitty wrote:Not even close. The average of maybe 30 loads a day is never going to pay to upgrade the line to 25. That's 110 miles Keag-Waterville, running 30 loads/day above Old Town and maybe 35/day from there down. No where near the revenue needed to justify a multiple tens of millions dollar upgrade for wholesale replacement of 50 track miles of rail.

Good point taken KSmitty on the cost of a Keag / Waterville upgrade. At least with consideration of potential Poland Springs traffic from Lincoln, that would not create from scratch, activity on a present day dormant track .... the Pan Am / NBSR car present day exchange appears to be growing. If an upgrade occurs out of the additional P. Springs activity, I am sure other business will use rail with the enhanced rail service. According to the BDN News article, if the P. Springs Lincoln based plant is a go, there would be a 4 year period for start up operation .... much can happen with planning from now to then.

KSmitty wrote:With some stone and surfacing the roadbed will be in decent shape, and a solid 10, but the rail is century old 85# that has been completely beat to hell.

And they were running unit oil trains on this track. I think Pan Am was lucky.

They used to run a hell of a lot more tonnage up to Keag than they do now and couldn't justify the upgrades you're going to have to see some substantial long term carload commitments to see it go to 25. Look at the Worcester Main, Stoney and Lowell Branches. Exponentially more tonnage and still 10 mph.

Every other railroad in the region can keep their mainline up to the 25 mph standard, so why can't PAR?

There are branch lines in northern Maine that see 20-30 carloads per WEEK that are still at least partially maintained at 25 mph (Houlton and Presque Isle branches of MNR)

Billerica has no excuse, they've spent decades neglecting their physical plant from one end of their system to the other.

If you ask me, it's a Catch 22 for them. They have lost business because the transit times are pathetic and they can't can't fix the track to improve them because they've lost so much business.

Then comes incompetence. They were given millions upon millions to rebuild Pan Am Southern and the whole thing has slipped back to 25 with smattering of 10. It's basically 10 from 424 to 405 since the FRA train came through.

Now they are looking to sell the Worcester main to the state to get a cash infusion.

Nothing will change until Billerica and all senior management in it is gone.

newpylong wrote:They have lost business because the transit times are pathetic and they can't can't fix the track to improve them because they've lost so much business.
. . .
Nothing will change until Billerica and all senior management in it is gone.

That's it in a nutshell.

They did this to themselves, end of story.

newpylong wrote:If you ask me, it's a Catch 22 for them. They have lost business because the transit times are pathetic and they can't can't fix the track to improve them because they've lost so much business.

They have readily available avenues for growth though, and as the article states, there are other industries in central and downeast Maine practically begging PAR to improve the speed and reliability of their rail service. It's very telling that the self-described "Largest regional railroad in North America" can't be bothered to do basic physical plant upkeep.

While the Water business may never replace the paper industry in terms of carload volume, it could easily be a solid source of traffic for the next 20-30 years.

Please pardon my ignorance on this, but was the maintenance of the ROW much better when they HAD all of the paper traffic? Everything I read about this outfit stinks.

No, not really.

There was a time when the B&M main (District 2 between Rigby and Ayer) was in a similar state of disrepair as Waterville - Keag is now, and that was back when there was exponentially more traffic than there is today. ST / Guilford / PAR has always had a reputation for having a "good enough" attitude about physical plant upkeep. Keep the line passable and nothing more.

MEC407 wrote:

newpylong wrote:They have lost business because the transit times are pathetic and they can't can't fix the track to improve them because they've lost so much business.
. . .
Nothing will change until Billerica and all senior management in it is gone.

That's it in a nutshell.

They did this to themselves, end of story.

Without knowing the company financials I think it's impossible to make these judgements. For example ... How much of the net profits are distributed annually to the (private) shareholders? ... We don't know ... If we did I think we would have an answer. But we don't and at that point it really comes down to whether or not the owner(s) want to reinvest profits or not.

A lot of the other Maine railroads are owned by companies with deep pockets that have a different strategic mindset. At it's core I think Pan Am is seen as an income producing asset for the ownership. That being the case I think it's much harder for senior management to get authorization for investment in physical plant that "may" result in savings or improvements etc.

Cosakita18 wrote:Every other railroad in the region can keep their mainline up to the 25 mph standard, so why can't PAR?

There are branch lines in northern Maine that see 20-30 carloads per WEEK that are still at least partially maintained at 25 mph (Houlton and Presque Isle branches of MNR)

Billerica has no excuse, they've spent decades neglecting their physical plant from one end of their system to the other.

Not to make excuses for Pan Am's current physical plant conditions. But it should be noted that their are some flaws with the 'everyone else does it, they should too" theory.
-The Searsport sub is nearly all 10's now, with a 5 thrown in in Stockton Springs.
-The line to Caribou got so bad that the remaining customers relocated to transloads in Presque Isle.
-Houlton and Presque Isle are both MDOT territory. Coming out of the MM&A abandonment they were 10, and have been rebuilt with significant federal monies. Traffic levels DO NOT warrant that sort of speed, and its unlikely those speeds will hold through the term of the MNR lease, 24 years to go. In fact I believe the Houlton has already slipped back to 10 in a few spots.
-CM&Q is also a bit of a different animal. Coming in they had to rebuild from literal ashes. They've spent big money, banking on future growth. The big budget was necessary to show they were no longer the MM&A, and weren't going to operate on a shoestring. However, their position, over 450 miles of 25mph running with few online customers and relatively light bridge traffic will prove untenable, if they cannot find a way to grow business.

Also keep in mind the service out of Maine is better now than it was when CM&Q was hauling the ST interchange to Irving. Transit times are down 12-24 hours on a 'Keag-Waterville routing versus the Brownville-NMJ-Waterville routing. Which just goes to show its not about speed, its about velocity. Dwell times are the killer. Pan Am needs to get away from the classification in Waterville, and then again at Rigby, and they need to get cars out of Rigby. If they can keep the cars moving, even at 10, they should be able to compete for business coming from the East and North. Win enough and you can consider 25.

KSmitty wrote: Also keep in mind the service out of Maine is better now than it was when CM&Q was hauling the ST interchange to Irving. Transit times are down 12-24 hours on a 'Keag-Waterville routing versus the Brownville-NMJ-Waterville routing. Which just goes to show its not about speed, its about velocity. Dwell times are the killer. Pan Am needs to get away from the classification in Waterville, and then again at Rigby, and they need to get cars out of Rigby. If they can keep the cars moving, even at 10, they should be able to compete for business coming from the East and North. Win enough and you can consider 25.

I probably sounded a bit too harsh with my criticism of PAR, because they HAVE improved in recent years. Most of D1 between Waterville and Rigby is 25 now, with a few segments of 10, and they've done wonders in improving the speed and reliability of POWA / WAPO. Billerica has entered a new era of competence in recent years, and I hope that can continue.