Interesting content in CP's STB reply filing of 3/31/15 to S&NC/NYDOT request to have CP grant interchange with future fellow Saratoga trackage rights user NS (assuming STB approval of NS acquisition of D&H South lines):
http://www.stb.dot.gov/filings/all.nsf/ ... 238100.pdf
Excerpts:
From pg 9:
"...SNCR is wrong when it claims that the requested condition would "not adversely affect"
D&H's operations... Saratoga Springs Yard currently operates at between
70-80% capacity.... The yard currently handles daily four Amtrak trains,
three local switch jobs, and four road trains. It is used to stage crude oil and ethanol trains and to
store rail cars, ballast cars and maintenance-of-way equipment. Allowing third parties to access
and operate within the yard would undoubtedly adversely impact D&H operations by consuming
capacity needed to operate efficiently, and by reducing D&H's ability to plan and manage
operations and volumes...That impact would be particularly severe if SNCR estimates that it
would interchange approximately
62 cars a day with NSR turn out to be correct...
Verified Statement of Justin Gonyo .... SNCR's traffic would
consume the approximate 60-car daily operating capacity for the West Yard7 where SNCR
claims the interchange could be accommodated, and would consume a third of the Saratoga
Springs Yard's total 180-car daily operating capacity.
Additionally, the proposed interchange activity likely would require that NSR block
D&H's mainline while it sets out empty cars and lifts loaded cars for SNCR...
Once the train is built, NSR would continue to block the mainline pending completion of
federally mandated airbrake testing. Such testing can take an hour or more to perform in cold
weather. This blockage would cause significant disruption to both D&H's yard and mainline
operations.... "
Footnote 6 says:
"SNCR estimates that it will interchange "five days per week 52 weeks per year ... about
31 cars in each direction." SNCR Comments, Gonyo V.S. at 3 (emphasis added). Based on
SNCR's estimate, the total number of cars that would be interchanged annually totals
approximately 16,000 (5 days/week = 260 days/year x 62 cars = 16,120)..."
Seems like a huge amount of forecasted tailings business. I wonder how realistic the forecast is?