Newburyport Branch

cpf354 wrote:The M&L was just a strip of land, so what are they going to do there, build the world's narrowest condo project or retail store? They abandon branches for what they consider good bussiness reasons, not to fleece the government.

Business is Business. Why would Pan Am put money into an infrastructure that isn't worth it? Example: if there only making 1,000 in one year off of one customer but yet they need to spend 10,000 just to up keep the structure; where's the logic? Where are they going to come up with the money when only one customer is on the line? Yeah they could spend the money but it would be at the expense of the other customers and if I were a paying customer I wouldn't be too happy if it affected my service. Where there are customers that bring in revenue they will spend the money; where there are customers but not enough to justify the expenditures they will operate till they can no longer do so. That's what happened in Salem, NH the money need to fix the line was just too much for them to justifiably upgrade the line. They would rather spend the money else where that supports their revenue.
Now you can say Pan Am structure and service across the board is poor but you have to remember it’s a business. If you’re bringing in 1 million a year but yet you need to spend 5 million a year to keep it in a class 1 standard you can't physically do it. Therefore you get poor track conditions because that's all they can afford. If you want NS to move in that’s fine you'll get your main track up grades but say good-bye to ever branch line that has less than 600 car loads a year. Hillsborough branch goodbye, anything north of Bow would be gone, Watertown... gone, Hampton, NH gone heck maybe Portsmouth all together would be gone... I think you get my point
Pan Am can try and recruit all they want to try and get business up here but in the end it really has nothing to do with them; its this region. We never recovered from the dark ages of the 60's and 70's. Big businesses find it cheaper and better to be in the south or out west something we lost a long time ago.

There is no question that the freight business in the Portsmouth area has dwindled in recent years. While the Portsmouth Switcher (PH-1) is a five day M-F job, it now goes to Portsmouth one or two days a week. The other days, it does the local work between Rockingham and Portland and may even recrew a through job. However, there was a Saturday extra today for a run to Portsmouth. 508 was the locomotive. There are two pictures in the NERAIL achives.

Guilford (PAR) does have a contract with the federal government to keep the line from Rockingham to Portsmouth to Kittery for rail access to the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. While trips to the Navy Yard are infrequent in recent years, I expect this agreement to remain in effect. I do not have the dollar amount involved in the contract.

Dick

cpf354 wrote:
They got out of the real estate bussiness when they put Northpoint up for sale. The M&L was just a strip of land, so what are they going to do there, build the world's narrowest condo project or retail store? They abandon branches for what they consider good bussiness reasons, not to fleece the government.

Of course not. The property would be subdivided and become part of adjacent lots just like other lines throughout history. Years ago Guilford was in the press accusing the state of ripping them off with the sale of assets. Was Guilford was hoping Union Pacific would buy such property? I don't think the state would interfere if a firm was poised to create a reputable short line operation over a would-be abandoned line.

As for the M&L Pan Am probably benefits from the lease to AT&T.

In todays Fosters (Dover NH paper) the Newburyport bridge was mentioned as being to costly to overcome thus no rail expected north of there for years if ever. It was part of a piece on the increase in rail and bus traffic from Dover and Portsmouth. FYI

The Wakefield Observer newspaper reports that the Wakefield Rail-trail got a positive recommendation for $500,000 in funding from the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Bonding, Capital Expenditures and State Assets and is headed to House Ways and Means. The trail will be 4.5 miles long starting in Wakefield and running to the Peabody/Lynnfield line.

http://www.wickedlocal.com/wakefield/ho ... 1564572939

eds alway the bearer of bad news

haha .. when the former customers on the line can't receive shipment from trucking because of a gas crisis in our economy .. well see how they could've felt about contracting more with GRS.

Wakefield Observer newspaper reports that MA lawmakers have secured state funding for rail-trail project in Wakefield. The article was posted on web 8/4/08. This funding is part of an overall $1.45 billion Transportation Bond Bill that was signed into law by Governor Patrick on 8/8/08.

http://www.wickedlocal.com/wakefield/ne ... il-project

Why did ST serve this branch?

Last month, two tracks across Water Street and the single track across Lowell Street in Wakefield were removed and paved over.

I was in Lynnfield and Peabody today, and the line looks like it hasn't changed much since the last time I saw it. I'm wondering how much longer the crossing signals will be up on Route 1 for.

theman8318 wrote:Why did ST serve this branch?

Container company in Wakefield, off of Rt 128, the last customer.

Railcar wrote:In todays Fosters (Dover NH paper) the Newburyport bridge was mentioned as being to costly to overcome thus no rail expected north of there for years if ever. It was part of a piece on the increase in rail and bus traffic from Dover and Portsmouth. FYI

As much as I would love to take a train to/from Portsmouth, the fact is that Dover is a much better hub for passengers, serving a larger population base.

So there is no hope .. this is just for an updated grade crossing?