Freight Rail News and Happenings

[Korh]

The state gives plenty to truck companies with all the massive roads and highways we built, seems only fair we give something to railroads, which is the most efficient land-based transportation we have.

A couple years ago MnDOT helped fund a bridge rehab project in South Minneapolis on Canadian Pacific owned tracks, and I remember someone on here contacting MnDOT to try to pressure CP and the Minnesota Commercial Railway (the primary user of those tracks) to accept an extension of the Midtown Greenway across the Mississippi in exchange for that funding. I don't remember the details on MnDOT's response, but I know they didn't give that idea any consideration. I would absolutely support helping out the railroads and in return they allow public use of their right-of-way (trails, transit, etc.), but it seems the people at MnDOT aren't interested in trying that for whatever reason(s).

I don't want any money going to fund BNSF, or CP as they should be responsible for the safe maintenance of their tracks or else give up ownership to the government. But for the smaller ones that don't make much of a profit, it's much harder to afford maintenance. I think it's good that the state helps them stay afloat and keep trucks off our road.

Welcome to America, where government gives money to (multi)billion dollar companies.

I don't disagree with you, but the corporate culture at these companies favors keeping the shareholders happy over the people who run and maintain the trains and infrastructure. That culture will be tough to change, and if nationalisation of the railway network gets any traction in the federal government I'm sure these companies would rather spend money on lobbyists to prevent that from happening instead of taking better care of their equipment and infrastructure.

BNSF isn't a publicly trade company and doesn't have any shareholders to please but its far from being better then the other railroads and while on the subject most of the class 1 shares are held in mutual and index funds from the main 3 managers so a lot of people end up having shares in them and don't realize and if they do don't really care enough to take part in anything.
I actually had a message recently to take part in a proxy vote for CSX (I assume from a vaguard index fund I have) but ended up ignoring it because I really don't anyone up for the vote and even if I did it would of been a drop in the bucket to try and sway things.

[Anondson]

BNSF isn't a publicly trade company and doesn't have any shareholders to please …

Maybe not publicly traded, but there are shareholders, like Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway owns a big chunk and they are publicly traded.

[Bob Stinson's Ghost]

BNSF is wholly owned by Berkshire Hathaway, and thus incapable of paying dividends and repurchasing shares. Theoretically they should be capable of long term thinking, unlike the others.

[amiller92]

Berkshire Harthaway has shareholders though.

[Korh]

I think Buffet and Berkshire Hathaway don't really care about passenger service and are completely fine with BNSF only investing in freight operations (iirc most of their investments have been centered around intermodal improvements) unlike Fortress and Wes Edens who let's be honest only created brightline to capitalize on real estate in Florida.

[DanPatchToget]

I think Buffet and Berkshire Hathaway don't really care about passenger service and are completely fine with BNSF only investing in freight operations (iirc most of their investments have been centered around intermodal improvements) unlike Fortress and Wes Edens who let's be honest only created brightline to capitalize on real estate in Florida.

I don't recall mentioning passenger rail in regards to the issue of freight railroads not putting in enough investment to take care of their infrastructure, equipment, and employees.

On the subject of Brightline, they're also progressing on plans for high speed rail between Las Vegas and Los Angeles, so it's not just Florida they're interested in.

Minor freight rail news in the Twin Cities:
A Progressive Rail train derailed at the Lyndale Avenue grade crossing in Bloomington. From a picture the Sun Current took it looks like just one boxcar is off the tracks, and the wheels dug into the concrete and asphalt. Not sure how long it'll take to repair the street, but as of a couple hours ago Lyndale is closed at that crossing.

[Korh]

I think Buffet and Berkshire Hathaway don't really care about passenger service and are completely fine with BNSF only investing in freight operations (iirc most of their investments have been centered around intermodal improvements) unlike Fortress and Wes Edens who let's be honest only created brightline to capitalize on real estate in Florida.

I don't recall mentioning passenger rail in regards to the issue of freight railroads not putting in enough investment to take care of their infrastructure, equipment, and employees.

On the subject of Brightline, they're also progressing on plans for high speed rail between Las Vegas and Los Angeles, so it's not just Florida they're interested in.

Minor freight rail news in the Twin Cities:
A Progressive Rail train derailed at the Lyndale Avenue grade crossing in Bloomington. From a picture the Sun Current took it looks like just one boxcar is off the tracks, and the wheels dug into the concrete and asphalt. Not sure how long it'll take to repair the street, but as of a couple hours ago Lyndale is closed at that crossing.

Passenger was just an afterthought, when I mean BNSF will invest in stuff it's mainly in how to load longer trains quicker but will do almost nothing like adding a second track to a mainline, hire more crew to run the trains, do anything better than the other class Is, etc. And on the rare case they do, it's usually on a tiny portion of track or a branch line no one has heard of that it's almost a meaningless gesture when compared to the rest of their system

[BoredAgain]

I think Buffet and Berkshire Hathaway don't really care about passenger service and are completely fine with BNSF only investing in freight operations (iirc most of their investments have been centered around intermodal improvements) unlike Fortress and Wes Edens who let's be honest only created brightline to capitalize on real estate in Florida.

I don't recall mentioning passenger rail in regards to the issue of freight railroads not putting in enough investment to take care of their infrastructure, equipment, and employees.

On the subject of Brightline, they're also progressing on plans for high speed rail between Las Vegas and Los Angeles, so it's not just Florida they're interested in.

Minor freight rail news in the Twin Cities:
A Progressive Rail train derailed at the Lyndale Avenue grade crossing in Bloomington. From a picture the Sun Current took it looks like just one boxcar is off the tracks, and the wheels dug into the concrete and asphalt. Not sure how long it'll take to repair the street, but as of a couple hours ago Lyndale is closed at that crossing.

Passenger was just an afterthought, when I mean BNSF will invest in stuff it's mainly in how to load longer trains quicker but will do almost nothing like adding a second track to a mainline, hire more crew to run the trains, do anything better than the other class Is, etc. And on the rare case they do, it's usually on a tiny portion of track or a branch line no one has heard of that it's almost a meaningless gesture when compared to the rest of their system

There's a reason that railroads don't invest in making trains run faster. It's because that isn't where trains spend most of their time. The figure might be out of date, but the average train car spends ~25 days on a single journey. Only 2 days of that is moving along lines filled with goods. A little bit is spent loading/unloading, some is spent moving around empty, but MOST of the time is spent sitting in railyards. They could spend billions of dollars upgrading tracks and improving travel speeds and get almost zero increase in system efficiency because railcars would still spend time sitting in freight yards waiting to be sorted into groups going to the right place.

These numbers are from the 70s, but I am willing to bet that things haven't gotten better.
https://homesignalblog.wordpress.com/20 ... railroads/

Passenger rail operations are so much different from freight rail operations that they basically need completely separate networks to work efficiently.

Anecdotally, I went on a tour of the Minneapolis water treatment facility not long ago. They have large lime water softening systems that require regular deliveries of chemicals. They are required by statute to keep 30 days (if i remember correctly) of chemicals on hand at all times to handle disruptions in the train delivery cycle. Sometimes they start running low and they can literally see the train cars with their chemical loads sitting in the rail yard across the road from the facility for days and there is nothing they can do.

[DanPatchToget]

Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern have officially merged. Their name is now CPKC.

[DanPatchToget]

Anyone go to Train Days at St. Paul Union Depot? I would've gone but I'm currently traveling around Europe so everyday is train day for me.

[Hero]

Some news on BNSF being BNSF,

https://kstp.com/5-investigates/destroy ... -railroad/

[DanPatchToget]

I was looking on Google Earth at the most recent aerial photos in the region (May of this year) and it looks like the new freight rail connection for the Twin Cities & Western in St. Louis Park is complete. When I’m back home in a few weeks I’ll check it out.

I wonder if they’ll have any ceremony for the inaugural train to use that connection or if TC&W will keep a low profile.

[DanPatchToget]

https://www.swnewsmedia.com/savage_pace ... 84301.html

CPKC will remove the Dan Patch Line bridge across Lynn Avenue in Savage this week due to a vehicle collision that damaged the bridge a month ago. It's not known if a replacement bridge will be built, as the tracks haven't been used in at least a couple decades.

I know with the bridge being narrow and low it was a pain for drivers, but still sad to see since it was built almost 100 years ago and did a good job at calming traffic.

[Korh]

I would of thought the bridge on Quentin is more annoying for drivers with that blind stop sign thing.

Also wonder if the track is abandoned whether it'll be turned into a rail trail or saved for a future transit project.

[Tom H.]

My GPS recently sent me through the Quentin Ave underpass, and I was honestly worried it was malfunctioning because it just felt like such an odd place.

[Korh]

https://www.railwayage.com/regulatory/m ... -projects/
9.6 million is up for freight companies to grab.
Wonder if a certain crash wall could of been a valid application a few years ago. State would of still had to pay for it either way put probably would of been better PR then forcing the met council to raise the cost of the SWLRT

[DanPatchToget]

In my perfect world BNSF would've footed the bill. If they're so worried about a derailment maybe they should take care of their infrastructure, equipment, and employees.

I expect TC&W to request funding to repair some track in Savage so then maybe they'll finally start running grain trains on the Dan Patch Line again. But then again I've heard rumors CPKC isn't very supportive of that initiative, even though TC&W has trackage rights on the Dan Patch Line.

[mattaudio]

I expect TC&W to request funding to repair some track in Savage so then maybe they'll finally start running grain trains on the Dan Patch Line again. But then again I've heard rumors CPKC isn't very supportive of that initiative, even though TC&W has trackage rights on the Dan Patch Line.

Not sure how congested certain freight areas are these days, but using the Dan Patch to connect the TC&W to the Spine Line (shared UP trackage / trackage rights?) to Comus would get them to home rails east to Winona or south to Mason City and beyond.

If CPKC completed the wye west of Humboldt Yard in New Hope, they could also use this to through-route trains from the Paynesville Subdivision to the Owatonna or Waseca Subs. This connection would require the purchase of an underutilized warehouse on 49th Ave N in addition to track rehab along the Dan Patch and Faribualt to Owatonna, but maybe it would be worth it for the new CPKC to bypass Twin Cities rail congestion to get to Chicago or Kansas City.

[DanPatchToget]

If CPKC completed the wye west of Humboldt Yard in New Hope, they could also use this to through-route trains from the Paynesville Subdivision to the Owatonna or Waseca Subs. This connection would require the purchase of an underutilized warehouse on 49th Ave N in addition to track rehab along the Dan Patch and Faribualt to Owatonna, but maybe it would be worth it for the new CPKC to bypass Twin Cities rail congestion to get to Chicago or Kansas City.

I've wondered if CPKC would put in the money to complete the wye at MN&S Junction and rehab the Dan Patch Line, but it seems like the other options to increase capacity (add more track on the River Sub and/or Spine Line) would be cheaper and easier to do. Also considering the uproar when CP and BNSF wanted to build a new connection in Crystal, I can imagine the protests against a completed wye and rehabbed Dan Patch Line would involve people attempting to block CPKC's trains.

[Korh]

I also wonder if TC&W will try and ask for anything in SLP cause I remember it was a sour point there where fighting the met council on because of the SWLRT, can't remember if they agreed to something and will keep using the Kenilworth corridor or was convinced to be rerouted to the MN&S Spur
Progress rail might get something and I might say something goes to the duluth/superior area but both might be optimistic