So with the MBTA leasing PW 4001-4005 in addition to AMTK having the 2006 & 2010 and PAR with the 2009, if memory serves that's 1/4 of their roster. Is this a reflection of a weakening traffic base or have they acquired too much power recently in anticipation of business that hasn't materialized? Are they now experiencing what the rest of the industry has been going through this year? Maybe trying to get some short-term revenue for the new owners?
They've been cycling through some leasers of their own, so could simply be a market fluctuation that there's more total money to be had leasing out a few of their own while picking up a few GATX rentals on the side. Pan Am does this sort of simultaneous give-and-take leasing all the time, so it's hardly a new thing. It could mean nothing more than we're just entering a brief phase where it's economically advantageous for carriers of medium-or-better roster size to engage in more short-term horse trading.
Probably doesn't have a lot to do with G&W. P&W has mostly a GE Dash 8 roster, with ongoing purge over the last few years of its EMD's (GP40's are all gone, just a half-dozen GP38's left and couple recent SD70M cheapie pickups to buff out the six-axle ranks). NECR is nuthin' but EMD Geeps and SD40's with just a couple Dash 8's shared with CSOR, and SLR is nuthin' but Geeps of various stripes. Doesn't make any sense for the new mothership in Darien to force top-down fleet fragmentation on any of its New England roads when maint costs are most optimal keeping the EMD's with the EMD users and the GE's with the GE user.
