Passenger Trains > Texas Eagle move

More info on the Eagle move off the UP between Fort Worth and Dallas. http://www.star-telegram.com/opinion/editorials/article4501593.html

OliveHeights Wrote:
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> More info on the Eagle move off the UP between
> Fort Worth and Dallas.

Interesting! Thanks for sharing.

Seems like there's an awful lot of "horse trading" between Amtrak, the freight carriers and commuter agencies. Maybe too much.

Sounds like all the lawyers in this country who drive up operations costs of everything imaginable, when they sue the deepest pocket they can find. Insurance costs are the unnecessary nonsense of our society.

Regarding the heritage of these routes; am I correct; that the current Eagle route is the former MOPAC route; and that it will be moving to the former CB&Q route?

Thanks for any help.

Joe

It is actually the former Rock Island, although CB&Q did run on it through trackage rights, as did SLSF.

To: CCDeWeese

Great info., thank you.

Do you know; did the ATSF have it's own route; or did it have trackage rights also?

Joe

Santa Fe used the Mopac line back in the day between Fort Worth and Dallas. In the 50's they built a line from near Denton into Dallas from the North. KCS now owns that line.

My take on this deal. Amtrak could have moved years ago, but they held out for a better liability deal than they have with the freight railroads. The $21 million of insurance the T is purchasing seems low, thinking about the Chatsworth tragedy. UP put the squeeze on the T by finally allowing them to use 2 miles of their track to access the old Cotton Belt to Grapevine for the new TEX Rail commuter service that was once advertised to be up and running by 2009 but now billed for 2018. This will be using DMU's. I wonder if they will mix with UP traffic and how much more insurance will UP require down the road to protect themselves?

My apologies to CCDeWeese.

OliveHeights Wrote:
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> Santa Fe used the Mopac line back in the day
> between Fort Worth and Dallas. In the 50's they
> built a line from near Denton into Dallas from the
> North. KCS now owns that line.
>
> My take on this deal. Amtrak could have moved
> years ago, but they held out for a better
> liability deal than they have with the freight
> railroads. The $21 million of insurance the T is
> purchasing seems low, thinking about the
> Chatsworth tragedy. UP put the squeeze on the T
> by finally allowing them to use 2 miles of their
> track to access the old Cotton Belt to Grapevine
> for the new TEX Rail commuter service that was
> once advertised to be up and running by 2009 but
> now billed for 2018. This will be using DMU's. I
> wonder if they will mix with UP traffic and how
> much more insurance will UP require down the road
> to protect themselves?
>
> My apologies to CCDeWeese.


Somebody was definitely looking for a better deal. Grapevine Vintage Railroad has been using that two miles of track for years. Not sure of the insurance requirements, though....

Of course BNSF runs a lot of freights from the wye at Irving to Dallas so did they have any input about the Eagle moving to the T line?

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