Western Railroad Discussion > Trackage rights question

How does a shoreline/small railroad company get trackage rights? Like SJVR in the San Joaquin Valley runs all over the UP tracks.Could SJVR take over freight duties in the Watsonville/Hollister area? Could a private train run between say Santa Cruz and Monterey? (assuming the branch from Castroville was cleaned up)

Just wondering

Nebraska Central runs right down the UP mainline in Nebraska, at a high rate of speed, so yes your conjecture is possible. It's more
common in the East where a shortline operator might have three for four disconnected segments they service. The option of trackage rights
is for the Class 1 to have a local (or locals) that service those disconnected sections. If they aren't too far apart the perferred
arrangement is for the shortline to run on the Class 1 trackage subject to speed/equipment rules. Pretty much anything is possible, the
STB rarely objects to arrangements between consenting parties.

Out

The particulars of what a railroad may do while running on track rights would be specified in the agreement providing for track rights. Usually the visiting road just needs to get from A to B on the host road. But customers on the track righted section can request service from the visiting road, and the host might agree IF the visiting road was bringing the cars with them that the customer required. But if the host road supplied the cars, they would want to have the switching fees to place them as well. On my road we have rights on a nearby portion of NS. At one time we shared access to a carpet mill, they brought in Coal and we brought in latex cars. We switched the cars we brought, and NS switched the cars they brought. In due course of time the carpet mill switched suppliers for latex and those cars came in via NS, so NS took over the whole operation. We still have rights out there and they have parallel rights on our road...the access to each of us is mutually beneficial, and on the rare occasion when they are actually used...the rights are crucial! How you GET track rights in the first place...you talk to the road you want to run on. When you come to terms you file a notice with the STB to codify the agreement.

It should be noted that the trackage rights user pays a per/car/per/mile charge to the owning road to use their track. Nothing is free unless for some reason there is a mutual trackage rights agreement where both roads get rights on each other.

It should also be noted that requesting T/R and receiving them are often two different issues. Just because one road wants to run on another road dosen't mean the other road wants to or must grant those rights. Everythingis...negotiable for an (often high) price.

exprail

How do you get anything in life? You ask for it.

The Great Western runs from Loveland, CO to Ft. Collins and back.

Bob Krieger
Cheyenne, WY

CPRR Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> How does a shoreline/small railroad company get
> trackage rights? Like SJVR in the San Joaquin
> Valley runs all over the UP tracks.Could SJVR take
> over freight duties in the Watsonville/Hollister
> area? Could a private train run between say Santa
> Cruz and Monterey? (assuming the branch from
> Castroville was cleaned up)

Some of SJVR's trackage rights are actually SP or ATSF trackage rights that were assigned to them when they took over in 1992. One stretch that comes to mind is Bakersfield to Famoso over the SP/UP. Those were Santa Fe trackage rights from a very long time ago.

California Northern had (maybe still has) some rights between Suisun and Davis in California. Don't remember the particulars, and the only time I saw them used was a light engine move while were at my sister's high school graduation. Otherwise, the trains always interchanged with SP (now UP) at Suisun or at Davis. The California Northern also had the branch from Tracy to Los Banos, but I'm not sure how they moved power between that line and the others if needed.

Nathan