Wow ya. I imagine rail traffic will take a big hit with the covid19 economic impact unfortunately.

I had no idea there was only a train or two a day on the Moffat and feather river line now. Seems like a massive expense to maintain all that with such little traffic.

Tom paints a bleaker picture of the Moffatt Route than is reality. I live on it, not just visit it, and judging by the amount of horns I hear at work and at home, there is still good traffic. Just not as much as there was back in the day.

What I know of, for example, is that there are the two Amtrak trains. There are two daily BNSF manifests, one eastbound and one westbound. BNSF is also running oil trains several times a week out of Wellington Utah heading east. Union Pacific may not be running Denver-Provo manifests any more but they have a few trains, such as "grocery coal" trains heading to California, the MROHP (Roper to Helper), and the Sunnyside Local that serves the East Carbon Development Company landfil. There are also frack sand trains coming into Wellington westbound. Intermountain Power Project is still receiving coal loaded at Skyline and Savage and as far as I know at West Elk as well. Utah Railway, while no longer hauling coal, is shuttling tank cars back and forth between Wild Cat and Provo over Soldier Summit. The Potash Local still runs once a week out of Grand Junction. Today in Helper, I saw the MROHP, the Sunnyside local, an IPP coal train, an eastbound grain train, and two westbound oil/sand trains. So there is a good bit of traffic.

The problem is that these trains do not all operate on the same days, and most of them reach "civilization" after dark or before sunrise. So if you are a railfan looking for action, you will have to be lucky like I was today.

The westbound California Zephyr will terminate at Denver from now on because of a lack of crews:

https://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire/2 ... yr-service

My parents live 200' from the line west of Denver, they are just now returning after spending the winter in AZ, so I should hear soon what is still running up there.

It's been reported on some other websites but, apparently, not yet on this one.

On March 13, the STB's office of proceedings issued a decision rejecting the KCVN Feeder Line Application "without prejudice" due to various substantive deficiencies in the application. Since the dismissal is "without prejudice", KCVN can refile the application. But, if it does so, it must address the deficiencies identified in the decision (some of which it may find difficult to do). Stay tuned for further developments.

For some reason (probably my lack of fundamental computer skills), I'm not able to attach the web address for the decision. But you can get the decision from the STB website. Just enter the following address, and scroll down to March 13.

Indulge.

https://prod.stb.gov/proceedings-actions/decisions/

This reported that on Wednesday the 18th on page 4 of this thread

I assure you, Mr. Opal, that it is not your "lack of fundamental computer skills" but that the STB, having already closed its library in order to discourage practitioners who prefer to read documents which have been memorialized on a sheet of an archaic substance called "paper", has reconfigured its website so as to automatically download a PDF rather than allow us to simply read the damn thing on the web.

GME
(Who, despite his lovely Granddaughters entreaties, is still trying to figure who he can sue, and collect from, for being stuck inside and being unable to enjoy the company of his Great Grandchildren. I have yet to find any case law declaring a virus a legal person while I have found some apparently declaring a legal person to be a virus!)

An update, the Colorado Pacific group is making another attempt to take over the line from UP and now is offering passenger service so as to “meet the statutory test for public convenience and necessity.” (no paywall): https://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire/2 ... -pass-line
There is little more than morning, noon and night along this line so a train for local service would be poorly patronized, but there has been talk in the past of operating a train from Denver, to Pueblo and up to the Vail/Keystone etc. ski resorts just a few miles away from Minturn, which would involve several miles of new line. Doesn't seem realistic, but who knows?

Will believe it when I see it.

Union Pacific has reached a agreement with Rio Grande Pacific to use the line. Rather bizarre in the posting they said they intend to use the route for passenger trains and not the oil trains. I remember reading past estimates of 200 million plus to restore that line. Not sure what they are smoking if they think they can dump that kind of money into that line and turn a profit off of passenger service. Still great news and it will be exciting to see some new video of trains running up the pass. More information can be found here

https://rgpc.com/wp-content/uploads/202 ... al-CMP.pdf

https://www.vaildaily.com/news/eagle-va ... njKOfAg0ms

The original group, Colorado Pacific, is objecting:
https://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire/2 ... es-is-sold
I doubt that the Rio Grande Pacific offer is legit, but rather is a way for UP to block the Colorado Pacific offer. The Colorado Pacific offer may have been far-fetched also, but at least they had a potential traffic source (grain from elevators they own in Kansas).

No, the RGP offer is very very legit, its just been happening in secret for years while Colorado Pacific has been loud and obnoxious this last year trying to legally bludgeon UP to take them. I know the RGP was a bit ruffled when Trains Magazine leaked their association with the pass plans, since RGP had been working on it for a long time in private and were not ready to announce it to the public yet. I fully believe the RGP plans have been in the work for a very very long time and they have a very clear business case for the pass with a very experienced team of railroad professionals and businessmen.

If anyone here is making a pointless landgrab its Colorado Pacific. Notice how Rock and Rail and The Royal Gorge both seemed pretty sour about Colorado Pacific and have made it clear they are not a fan of their plan? Where as both have stayed silent on RGP? Its a case where silence is golden, and I think its likely RGP has been working with the other rail owners in the region in private for as long as they have been working with UP. Colorado Pacific repeatedly is showing a misunderstanding of the railroad industry, their complaints about a Union Pacific monopoly both ignore that the pass would still terminate on UP tracks on both ends, and that BNSF already is offering trackage rights trains from their own crews over the UP from Denver onto Provo and Stockton. Colorado Pacific wants to make a bridge route where the demand doesn't exist, and is using legal bullying to try and force it.

It was an unredacted STB document that 'outed' RGP, not Trains Magazine.
The Colorado Pacific guys are NYers that are trying NY business tactics in an industry that won't take kindly to it.

CD

After Minturn the track runs right through the center of the wealthy community of Avon with several post 1996 grade crossings with many expensive homes and condos built along the rails. Avon is Beaver Creek Resort ski area, a Vail resort. Very expensive and very exclusive. Beaver Creek was president Gerald Fords winter home. More upscale than Vail.

I spoke to residents of Minturn in 1996 and 1997, after the UP-SP merger and pending TP shutdown, who told me VA (Vail Associates) was REALLY interested in buying the entire Minturn yard, shop complex and main line, along with the water rights to be used for snow making, for a pretty penny, to which these Minturn residents were very opposed. Colorado blocked track removal 23 years ago because they wanted to keep an option for bypassing Denver for all the coal trains running back then, but I am wondering if, with the drop in coal demand, Colorado would allow it to happen now.

I hope the RGP offer is earnest, but I have to say that all this reminds me of the Safeway-Albertsons (two large grocery store chains) merger of several years ago, when as part of the antitrust review the combined entity was required to sell 146 stores that were close to remaining stores to a third party, which turned out to be poor, hapless Haggen Stores of Washington State. Within a year Haggen was bankrupt and all 146 former Albertsons/Safeway stores were closed. I wonder if RGP is being set up to fail, after which UP will then have the ability to pull up the rail and sell off the land. The fact that it is only a lease raises concerns beyond UP holding on to the Minturn property, such as what incentive would the new company have to put one cent into the track? UP didn't maintain it when they were preparing to shut it down obviously.

The first "I bought a home by the railroad tracks six years ago" NIMBY has filed, as seen in filing ID # 301425 in the STB reading room:
https://dcms-external.s3.amazonaws.com/ ... 301425.pdf



And then this gem:


*sigh*