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.