Headline says it all.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/en ... z30mxAkxLA

A lot of this sounds similar to the disputes in New York, but I'm not sure the cause is the same. Can anyone provide other details?

For your reading pleasure:

http://www.stb.dot.gov/filings/all.nsf/WEBUNID/62ED1CFA09D98B3285257CAC00681B2F?OpenDocument
http://www.stb.dot.gov/filings/all.nsf/WEBUNID/0BC2B9CFEAB7668E85257CBA004458D8?OpenDocument
http://www.stb.dot.gov/filings/all.nsf/WEBUNID/52E8D6C6C750E91385257CBD0067C8EF?OpenDocument
http://www.stb.dot.gov/filings/all.nsf/WEBUNID/F7CC50B288281CD185257CC2006DBDA0?OpenDocument

Be forewarned - Number 3 is 69 MB

GME

Well, there are several articles I have found that may interest you.

http://www.santapaulatimes.com/news/arc ... train.html

Note the name of VCTC Executive Director Darren Kettle, and his complaint:

"A VCTC official told the commission that millions have been spent that benefited the for-profit railway company. VCTC Executive Director Darren Kettle said that over the past 11 years, the commission has spent approximately $7.2 million on the rail line, including additional maintenance costs."

Next, a recent Surface Transportation Board Emergency Filing:

http://www.stb.dot.gov/filings/all.nsf/ ... 235725.pdf

Look for the name Darren Kettle in the above petition.

Then I found this:

http://www.vcstar.com/news/2012/feb/23/ ... l/?print=1

Seems like Darren Kettle is a rail-trail advocate.

Next, an article by Russell B. Sperry calling Mr. Kettle out for misleading information:

http://www.vcreporter.com/cms/story/det ... ine/10851/

There is a Trains Magazine article published on April 12, 2013 entitled "Proposal floated to convert Fillmore & Western to bike trail".

Does this compare to the Adirondack Scenic Railroad and ARTA?

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=35714

J3a, what do you think?

Jim

Rinse and repeat, do I see it all over again?

Somebody wants to throw out a railroad for a trail. I'm starting to feel some of these trail guys are hoodlums in disguise.

Its like an aggressive takeover in business, throw some money around "here take this money, now get the flockers out of the way!"


just say NO.

I'll take the arguments all the way back to the North Shore abandonment and how the holding company was controlled by GM, who wanted the line out so they could run their busses. Remembering Kenosha Radio Show host had a 2 day show about the NS abandonment and got into how deep GM went to get their way and some GM reps went to jail. Didnt save the North Shore. I have to contact the Kenosha show about copies of those shows.

Some of this Rail/Trail is getting suspect.

A recent article about the embargo and the future plans of the railroad corridor:

http://sespesun.com/archives/364

This line has customers that ship by rail as well as the tourist and contract movie operations.

Another active railroad line taken down by a rail-trail plan?

Jim

I keep hoping these people decide they want a trail somewhere like BNSF's Transcon or UP's Overland route.

They need to stop picking on the little tourist and shortline operations.

I have been noticing this pattern for months. The Rail Trail Conservancy is experiencing "mission creep" as another RPN member described it.

Visiting the RTC web site will provide many links to read and consider. The number of programs and initiatives for funding alternative transportation is growing and complicating the purpose of rail-banking. These are permanent plans, not in the spirit of saving the corridors for future rail transportation. Consider the bio of the current RTC President Keith Laughlin and his environmental roots.

Jim

Does this qualify?

http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2014-0 ... peed-train

http://floridaduh.wordpress.com/2014/03 ... rail-line/

Bit of background--this is in reference to a proposal by the Florida East Coast to return to passenger service. This is considered controversial in some areas, notably in towns along what is called the Treasure Coast, due to concerns about excessive speed running through towns, excessive or additional noise, pollution, safety hazards, and the effects of increased train traffic on auto and boat traffic congestion (traffic signals on intersections in turn lanes that cross the railroad recycle every time a train goes through, causing backups in turn lanes, and the railroad's bridges are very low, requiring movable spans for boat traffic that will be kept closed much longer than currently due to increased rail traffic).

http://www.floridanotallaboard.com/

https://www.facebook.com/floridanotallaboard

Oh, I've checked some of the towns involved (Stuart, Jupiter, and Port St. Lucie), and only the traffic congestion problems for boats and maybe the street system might be real. The rest is so much hooey, at least in my opinion, though of course the townspeople would disagree with me.

https://www.facebook.com/floridanotalla ... 0382951293

In that case, it is rail with trail; my implication was a remove the rails, build the trail NOW! scenario; but on a Class One mainline (and the resulting deep pockets and big legal staff that class ones have).

The part about having a parallel walking trail in the cities actually makes a little sense (they can skip it outside of the city IMHO). The sad fact of today is that people are going to use a railroad corridor (especially in a city) as a walking path anyway. Putting a designated path next to the tracks with a fence separating the two (fence maintained by the trail authority of course) would alleviate at least some of the trespassing.

The mission creep of the trail advocates is not recent, but they are getting more brazen and that is getting them more attention. The push to tear up existing lines for trails has been going on quietly for decades. Stopping the various trail lobbies is going to take a concerted effort on the national level. I don't know that the people or resources exist.

As for wanting to tear up an active mainline, that already happened. When Bethlehem, Pa decided to cut themselves off from any potential return of passenger service to Philly by trail-izing the west end of the ex Reading Beth Branch some local zealots also decided that a trail along the Lehigh River would be nice. All they were asking was for NS to abandon a portion of the their Chicago-North Jersey main!

Rob

Seems like the same old song and dance about who owns what , where and how.
I'll leave you with one of my favorite quotes...

Mr. Starr


Greed and Pride can get the best of us, even if we have the best of intentions!

The trail advocacy is endowed with a rarified form of empowerment and a mission that is much larger than just corridors for recreation. It is about promoting a whole lifestyle including what we consume, where we live, the role of the automobile, what we eat, and how we use the land. If you are fighting against a trail proposal, it pays to know your enemy.

I live on an independently named, ¾-mile long stretch of county road, and our city was smitten by the trail advocacy brought in by a new city council member. Forty-eight of the 51 residents on the road were strongly opposed the plan to “enhance” our road with a trail and related amenities. This was a city proposal being pushed by a city that says they place high importance on listening to residents and doing what they want.

Yet, we had to fight this plan with all our might for three years before we finally defeated it. It was like being swallowed by a boa constrictor and getting the snake to change his mind half way down.

The following article from Progressive Railroading illustrates Ron point:

http://progressiverailroading.com/feder ... lth--38354

This is why it will be very difficult in the future to reclaim a rail-banked corridor and restore to an operating railroad. Activists will mobilize against the railroad plans regardless of the law.

This is why there needs to be a change in the rules on how trail groups acquire a railroad corridor.

Jim

Not to invalidate your point about hostile intentions but can you elaborate on the GM connection? As far as I know, the Susquehanna Corporation was a diversified equity firm or holding company and North Shore went out of business because of a combination of market shifts, labor costs, economic regulation, and having its competitions subsidized- like most private transit companies.

I am tracking down the North Shore show Lou Rugani did on his radio show on WLIP AM, he might have podcasts, the show was to be only one day/evening, but he was so taken in by the information coming in he added a 2nd show to provide open input, and people were calling in about the abandonment. Stories I never heard and surprised me, I am going from memory here, no links (yet), I couldn't listen to the show direct so he had a livecast, and my measily 56k sputterred thruout.
Just hang in there while I dig this out, while I have other life things to do here.

the more I heard on the show the more angry I got about some underhand dealing going on. Why did the North Shore need this "Holding" company? and when did this transaction take place, its like it was placing the future doom already on the line. There were plenty of efforts to save the line and it was met on deaf ears.
This is where it gets suspicious.