by newpylong
I am not on railroad related Facebook groups (for several reasons), but I hear that the world's greatest railfan is saying the application is not going to be a slam dunk, specifically with objections from VTR, which he pretends to work for.
I don't think anyone believes that it is going to be a lay up by any means, but there certainly are mitigating factors within the application on several fronts including the commitment to fair and carrier neutral pricing/routing by B&E.
Outside of the application, I think the guaranteed assignment of operations of the entire Northern to NEGS is a pretty good step. However, as VTR will be boxed in to the south by G&W roads, I wonder if they would want trackage rights (whether they excercise them or not) from Hoosick Junction to Mohawk/XO to gain a direct interchange with NS and RJ for CSX. They already have qualified crews to Buskirk to use the double iron EB to HJ.
I don't think anyone believes that it is going to be a lay up by any means, but there certainly are mitigating factors within the application on several fronts including the commitment to fair and carrier neutral pricing/routing by B&E.
Outside of the application, I think the guaranteed assignment of operations of the entire Northern to NEGS is a pretty good step. However, as VTR will be boxed in to the south by G&W roads, I wonder if they would want trackage rights (whether they excercise them or not) from Hoosick Junction to Mohawk/XO to gain a direct interchange with NS and RJ for CSX. They already have qualified crews to Buskirk to use the double iron EB to HJ.