Question about rail vs trucks

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Thebrantfordrailfan
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Question about rail vs trucks

Post by Thebrantfordrailfan » Sat May 19, 2018 8:49 pm

Hello, i probably sound super naive but i am only 17 so forgive me lol. But i want to get a few opinions about something. I live in Canada and there is a once customer line in my town that is famous for it's sidewalk and street running, the Burford Spur here is the story: This line was run by CN until 2015 and they wanted out since they weren't making much of a profit due to high maintenance costs and low traffic levels (one train per week with only 3 to 6 cars on average) so they were going to abandon it but the factory at the end of the line bought the line and contracted the Southern Ontario Railway ( a G&W owned shortline) to run it and it's been that way ever since. But the future of the line seems to be in question once more, since SOR almost exclusively runs on former CN trackage, and now CN is taking back the tracks since the 20 years lease is expiring this september.

This mean that the SOR will have no track and might kick the bucket as a result. So there are 3 things in my mind that could mean the line will survive, which is CN takes the line back (maybe, since the cost of maintenance is covered by the factory that owns the spur) or they purchase a switcher to go get the cars from the mainline. Or another railway somehow gets to run it (unlikely since there is no other railway nearby) Or the other option if for them to switch to trucks which will mean the end of the line. So the question is what is the most likely option? Do you think it will be cheaper for them to switch to trucks or buy a locomotive to switch the plant? And since CN wanted the line gone so badly before do you think they will still want nothing to do with it even if they are relieved of maintenance costs?
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freebrickproductions
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Re: Question about rail vs trucks

Post by freebrickproductions » Sun May 20, 2018 2:49 am

They may wind-up selling the line to the SOR.
They/Them for me, please.

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