What happens if Pan Am collapses?

the entire Maine Central relies on the paper industry at this point, so whether they have 600 miles of rural trackage like the MM&A or 200 miles of "mainline" is irrelevant. Once the mills go, all they have left is some bridge traffic to the NBSR, local traffic, and that's about it - unless by then they open the ramp again at Waterville, which would add some intermodal. Hopefully we are discussing al of this for no reason and those mills continue to be viable.

No big deal; PAR will just threaten to abandon the "paper branches" and everything above Waterville, the state will jump in and buy the tracks, fix them up to 40 MPH, and appoint one of the Irving subsidiaries as the operator. PAR will make out just fine.

newpylong wrote:the entire Maine Central relies on the paper industry at this point, so whether they have 600 miles of rural trackage like the MM&A or 200 miles of "mainline" is irrelevant. Once the mills go, all they have left is some bridge traffic to the NBSR, local traffic, and that's about it - unless by then they open the ramp again at Waterville, which would add some intermodal. Hopefully we are discussing al of this for no reason and those mills continue to be viable.

Hasn't the Maine Central been reliant on the paper industry for the last 50 years or so?

yup... and there is about 5 big mills keeping the place viable...