MEC407 wrote: ↑Thu Oct 28, 2021 8:05 am
I think Chessie will get it up to Class 2 as an interim measure, and then she will take a cat nap and wait for the State of Maine to spend $100 million to rebuild the MEC to Class 4 from Bangor to Portland. Then she'll have solid Class 4 from Bangor to points south/west and won't have to spend any of her own kibbles on it. The remaining Class 2 stretch from Mattawamkeag to Bangor is short enough that it won't hinder her transit times in a meaningful way. With good locomotives and no speed restrictions, she would be able to make Mattawamkeag to Bangor in 2 1/2 hours on Class 2 track. (Currently Pan Am takes 6-7 hours to cover that stretch.)
First, Mr. MEC first I believe your entire posting relates to my following thoughts. I respect that you aggressively police excessive quoting at your Forum; I did same when I wore the "Tin Star" over at the Amtrak.
https://apnews.com/article/ma-state-wir ... 831e4989fc
OKAY; so Chessie wants to place her bets that some agency (NNEPRA I would presume so as to get the Commonwealth to chip in) wants to start Boston-Bangor passenger service, which means FRA Class 4 as Amtrak will generally not operate over anything less. I get it.
I'm sure any existing shipper will be singing Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" when Timmy packs up to drop his loot into the Trump '24 campaign, and out of which he hopes to get an Ambassadorship of the "Court of St. James varietal".
But what about new shippers with high value traffic? such as Jeff or Wally World distribution centers served by rail, containers, VW's, and Bennies coming from the Ports of Saint John and Searsport? Will they ship over Class 2?
Has the enquiring mind sufficiently made his point?