Mr. Newpy, considering that the Pan Am branding rights will in all likelihood stay with Timmy or otherwise go elsewhere, what more could Susie "bring to the table" than some paint spray guns to obliterate any Pan Am markings on equipment and structures.
The capital needed to better the lot of Northern New England's railroad transportation? Uh, hello.
So maybe such could be a vehicle for "Susie Shared Assets" to keep the Surf Board and shippers that like competitive rail happy, but that in itself does not provide the capital to have an FRA Class 3 system throughout as well as digging out the clearance restrictions (mainly Hoosac) to handle the cars shippers, as in the maritime companies, expect and can have at any another East Coast port. In a shared asset arrangement, considering that Chessie and Topper both serve any other East Coast port, directly or through Conrail Shared Assets, what incentive have they got to fix up somebody else's property?
One might ask, "in the now almost twenty year existence of CRSA, why hasn't that gone to pot?" I think the answer to that is many fewer route miles and much more traffic. In each CRSA region - New York, Philly, and Detroit - the traffic was already there and was not about to pick up stakes and go elsewhere. In the case of the existing Pan Am, we're talking about a "rinky dink road" to start with and having to develop the traffic from essentially nothing at present.
Chessie, and Topper if somehow he hasn't "scratched", have the capital and the salesforces, to place their bets that one, or both, could make it happen.
Finally, if I'm out of line to refer to Pan Am as a "rinky dink road", please accept my apologies. Possibly I'm "guilty" from living along the BNSF Chicago Sub with its Class 4 road and its 60mph freight, 70mph passenger MAS, but I have not seen one posting here suggesting that any part of the Pan Am system, away from the publicly funded Class 4 to handle NNEPRA or MBTA passenger trains, described otherwise. That the track to Mattawamkeag - the interchange with EMRY through which the Port of Saint John would be accessed is reportedly FRA Class 1 (10mph), means "a long way to go" until this property can be considered "competitive".