NS Selling Michigan Line to WATCO

[jsmyers]

Read about it here.

There might be an old topic about this back when it was rumored. But apparently it is almost a done deal now.

Anybody know much about Watco? Over the long term, what effect do you think this sale might have on trains 35x and 36x?

[burkeman]

Amtrak should put in a bid

[bmichel5581]

NS is still going to dispatch it from what I understand

[Jersey_Mike]

It would be interesting if the Kalamazoo-based short line moved dispatch operations to the active BO tower. The Bay Colony dispatches out of the active New Haven RR tower in Buzzard's Bay and the Reading and Northern built a "tower" for their dispatcher in Port Clinton.

Without the unionized work rules the operator is free to perform dispatch duties and the location of BO tower would make it easy to plug into the existing CTC.

[Tadman]

NS currently operates some locals over the Amtrak segment to service customers in Niles and Michigan City - are they going to sell this to Watco as well? It strikes me that the best thing to do here is sell these services to South Shore freight, as they service mostly Michigan City customers.

[Greg Moore]

Amtrak should put in a bid

With what, their good lucks?

Seriously, they don't have the money.