Freight Rail News and Happenings

[LiamG]

Major derailment in Frazee on BNSF's Staples Subdivision. Thankfully it appears there are no injuries. Tomorrow's eastbound Empire Builder will likely be detouring via Morris and Willmar on its way from North Dakota to the Twin Cities.

I was interested to see how Amtrak's 'Track Your Train' tool would handle this detour off route. It definitely shows the train headed down towards Morris.

TrackYourTrain.png

[Silophant]

What happens to people that were going to be boarding or alighting at Detroit Lakes, Staples, or St Cloud? Do they get a bus transfer via Fargo or Minneapolis, or are they out of luck?

[DanPatchToget]

What happens to people that were going to be boarding or alighting at Detroit Lakes, Staples, or St Cloud? Do they get a bus transfer via Fargo or Minneapolis, or are they out of luck?

I'm not sure about people boarding at those stations, but I believe passengers getting off at those stations took buses from Fargo. There was also a stop in Willmar, but that might've been just for the crew change.

[DanPatchToget]

https://www.mnsenaterepublicans.com/sen ... kof8Fz7qSE

A senator and a representative from Lakeville are trying to get funding for a new railcar storage facility so Progressive Rail will stop storing cars on the Dan Patch Line through residential neighborhoods.

For those who may not know, Progressive Rail has been storing unused freight cars on a section of the Dan Patch Line between I-35 and downtown Lakeville since around 2008. This has been on and off through the years as it depends on the market demand for freight cars. When these cars are being moved they block grade crossings for anywhere from a few minutes to more than 15 minutes. However even if the storage facility is built that doesn’t mean Progressive Rail will stop storing cars on the neighborhood tracks. Maybe they should instead support passenger rail on the Dan Patch Line so then Progressive Rail can’t store cars there anymore. (wink wink)

[Hero]

One more reason the railroads should be nationalized. Could you imagine if all the interstate freeways were owned by a handful of companies?

[Korh]

I mean there's an argument that the interstates never should of been built.

[Trademark]

I mean there's an argument that the interstates never should of been built.

As intercity routes or intracity routes?

[Korh]

I mean there's an argument that the interstates never should of been built.

As intercity routes or intracity routes?

Depends on who you ask. Some people just have a problem with the interstates cutting through the heart of city's, while others say the US highway system was more than enough as is and there was no reason to build the interstates.

[DanPatchToget]

An interstate highway system was definitely needed in our country, but not carving through urban centers. There also should've been an equally major overhaul of the country's railway network. Instead we upgraded highways and airports while railroads were dying and the government pretty much ignored it besides the formation of Amtrak (a skeleton of the passenger rail system we used to have) and assistance for Penn Central.

[Hero]

An interstate highway system was definitely needed in our country, but not carving through urban centers. There also should've been an equally major overhaul of the country's railway network. Instead we upgraded highways and airports while railroads were dying and the government pretty much ignored it besides the formation of Amtrak (a skeleton of the passenger rail system we used to have) and assistance for Penn Central.

My thoughts exactly. We even had a start of a national rail system with Conrail. If only that were expanded nation wide instead of sold off. Not that I think the government should operate the trains but they would keep the rails in good shape for any freight (or transit) company to use.

[DanPatchToget]

I read on a local railroad Facebook group that Union Pacific is no longer operating revenue trains on the Montgomery Subdivision between Merriam Junction (southwest of Shakopee) and Montgomery. This means the tracks will be out-of-service, and I'm not sure what the chances are of this leading to a filing for abandonment.

[MNdible]

Is there still some sort of dedicated funding stream for Rails-to-Trails?

[DanPatchToget]

Ope, it was a rumor. The person seemed like a credible source, but even if they work for the railroad it still isn't 100% reliable.

However traffic is quite low on this line, I believe there's only two customers left (one in Montgomery, one in New Prague). I'm kind of surprised Union Pacific is still running trains on it. With maintenance and operating costs it seems like that operation would barely break even.

[thespeedmccool]

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say the Montgomery Subdivision is probably not a likely candidate for commuter rail, but I don't think we should be jumping to convert any more rails to trails without considering future transit needs. I hope Scott and Le Seuer counties and any other relevant stakeholders at least consider the possibility of rail transit on this subdivision before jumping to rip out the rails.

Certainly, some corridors just wouldn't support transit and are unlikely to ever support transit, but others may have higher callings than recreational bike routes.

[DanPatchToget]

Jordan, New Prague, and Montgomery have great downtown districts that are walkable and the Montgomery Subdivision goes right through them. I know that's not quite enough to warrant commuter/regional rail service, but it certainly improves the chances. I agree that if/when the Montgomery Subdivision is abandoned we should hold off on a rail-to-trail conversion and study the travel patterns of these communities and the feasibility of regional rail service.

[Korh]

Probably extremely unlikely to every happen but might make a decent heritage line since if you don't count the two streetcar lines the only frequent ones near the cities are up by the north shore and st.croix river respectively, or you can get lucky (and have enough money) and manage to catch a rare excursion from the friends of the 261.

Also I don't know if this is worth a thread but I wonder if you ask the users here if you could go back in time and prevent as many rail-trail conversions around the state how many you would stop and save for later transit use

[mattaudio]

I've wondered if any of the big RRs ever wish they had kept a main as a straight shot south from the metro. UP has the spine line (originally Rock Island) and CP has stitched together the old Milwaukee Road from St. Paul to Sabula via Soo Line and DM&E/IC&E purchases.

But now will CP wish they had more capacity on Glenwood or MSP to Kansas City with the Kansas City Southern merger?
Or does CN wish they had a Duluth-MSP-southern spine line to avoid having to push all their mainline traffic from International Falls/Duluth through Chicago?

It's doubtful any of these lines will come back to life, but you never know. ZipRail to Rochester was considering restoring the old Chicago Great Western line from Rosemount to Dodge Center as part of a passenger HSR route to Rochester. And this old M&STL line to Montgomery still exists in parts though has seen more recent abandonment from Waseca to Albert Lea.

[DanPatchToget]

https://www.startribune.com/st-anthony- ... 600171704/

Short-line railroads including Minnesota Commercial Railway will be seeking state money from the budget surplus for track repairs that they can't pay on their own. The article doesn't go into detail about specific projects except one repair project recently completed on a bridge in South Minneapolis that's also used by the Midtown Greenway. Two or three years ago Minnesota Commercial received funding to do repairs on a section of track through White Bear Lake and Hugo.

[DanPatchToget]

Very late news since this apparently happened in December, but at Fordson Junction the track switch connecting the Ford Spur with the mainline has been removed. I checked it out yesterday and the Ford Spur is indeed disconnected from the national railway network. The rest of the tracks on the Ford Spur are still there and CP hasn't officially abandoned it yet, but the track switch removal is a big step towards that.

[DanPatchToget]

The new connection in St. Louis Park from the Met Council-owned tracks used by Twin Cities & Western to Canadian Pacific's MN&S Spur looks almost done. I think all they need to do now is put in the final bridge section, add a switch on the MN&S Spur, and put in the track on the new embankment and bridge. I've enquired about when this will be completed, but I haven't gotten a solid answer. There's also the question of if TC&W will use this new connection when it's completed.