Re: (erielack) O&W Discussion Group Abandoned RRs in Scranton Area

[Charles_Walsh_@_Berlex.com]

Rich,

Excellent point.  Clearly, had the government been willing to subsidize
rail transportation, as it has for highways, airports, etc., many of these
"redundant" routes could have been retained.  Fortunately, the concept of
railbanking took hold, but still many routes that might be invaluable in
the future have been lost (due to encroachment) because their present value
is difficult to prove.  I can't help but think that in the year 2100 we in
the US are going to wish that we had the rail map of 1915 available to us.

Chuck



                                                                           
             Rich Young                                                    
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             08/16/2006 12:40          Abandoned RRs in Scranton Area      
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  Surprisingly in the July 1925 issue of Railway Age
there is a long article about the redundency of routes
and infrastructure and how 85% of the traffic is
primarily shipped over 15% of rails. And the case
being the easing of taxes on the less used routes
because they were not allowed to abandon those lines.
The regulatory body's case being the economic
stability of the areas served as well as the reroute
cabilities and capacity in case of national crisis(
war) .

I find it funny that the same issues over time keep
appearing as well using the same argument in the 80's
to abandon many lines and now you have the capacity
issues of today.

Rich Young

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