Eastern Railroad Discussion > ex-CofG line to return to service?

Athens Line LLC and NS have decided that the shortline operator will purchase the ex-CofG line between Madison, GA and Athens, GA instead of simply leasing it. Ho hum. But buried in a footnote of the STB filing is an interesting note: "CGA was authorized to discontinue service over a 16-mile portion of the line between milepost F-75.5 near Madison and milepost F-91.5 at Bishop, Ga., in 1988. Athens states that it intends to rehabilitate the line between those mileposts, and that if required, it will seek authority to reactivate service over such tracks."

I wonder what motivates this -- interchange with CSX (or a future shortline operator) at Madison, perhaps? -- or whether it's even a sincere statement of interest. Even in the 1980s, the discontinued segment was 10 mph. Having sat there for nearly 30 years, rehabilitation won't be cheap.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/24/17 10:24 by ctillnc.

There is 3-4 ft diameter trees in the gauge. Going to be a total rebuild of the mainline. CSX cut that line off to local only. Wonder if there not going to try to service Madison from the north and stop service from Macon

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who are the principals behind Athens Line LLC? Is there any obvious business that would want rail service after a 30 year hiatus? Or a location for a power plant or power plant waste disposal?

In addition, two bridges would have to be rebuilt.

Bennie Ray Anderson is the owner of Athens Line LLC, the Hartwell Railroad, and the Great Walton Railroad. The 16 miles in question go through some desolate territory. I suppose it's possible that someone wants to build a new plant along the railroad, but it seems unlikely.

A few years back, there was talk of an automobile (or truck) assembly plant near Athens. However, NS may have a hidden plan here. If NS wanted to rebuild the line for through service, there could be much opposition. Let someone else do it, and it gets done. A short cut from NS main north of Athens to Macon would allow traffic to bypass Atlanta. The truck drivers figured this out a long time ago.

John

Ford had a spot picked out in Madison for a plant. But the people of Madison voted no on it. A bad choice of you ask me. The NS F line would have been interesting to try to run long rack trains on that roller coaster of a line.

DocJohn Wrote:
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> A few years back, there was talk of an automobile
> (or truck) assembly plant near Athens. However,
> NS may have a hidden plan here. If NS wanted to
> rebuild the line for through service, there could
> be much opposition. Let someone else do it, and
> it gets done. A short cut from NS main north of
> Athens to Macon would allow traffic to bypass
> Atlanta. The truck drivers figured this out a
> long time ago.
>
> John

> A short cut from NS main north of Athens to Macon would allow
> traffic to bypass Atlanta.

Given the layout of Lula-Athens-Madison-Mogul, I question whether trains could run fast even if NS spent $50 million to rebuild it. Too hilly and too meandering.

ctillnc Wrote:
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> > A short cut from NS main north of Athens to
> Macon would allow
> > traffic to bypass Atlanta.
>
> Given the layout of Lula-Athens-Madison-Mogul, I
> question whether trains could run fast even if NS
> spent $50 million to rebuild it. Too hilly and too
> meandering.

According to the present day traffic patterns, the only candidates to use such a bypass would be manifests 118 and 119. I don't think that alone would justify the cost of a newly rebuilt line.

Andrew

NSDTK, thank you for the identification of proposed auto plant. If the projections about traffic levels from container ports in GA and FL are anywhere correct, there does not appear to be enough railroad to get traffic north out of Macon and that does not consider what happens when trains get to Atlanta. For those concerned about hilly, curvy routes, take a look at New York, Susquehanna & Western route through northern New Jersey and southern New York state. Much of the NJ portion of that railroad had to be recovered from years of no trains whatsover.

John

The projections of volumes out of Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Tampa, Jacksonville, Savannah, and Charleston are indeed impressive, but it's anyone's guess whether they will really happen.

The trend on the bigger container operators is to focus on fewer stops and concentrate their ship time on the sea transit. The days of stopping at multiple ports up the coast are probably over for larger ships. That hasn't stopped the ports authorities from investing heavily in updated facilities and infrastructure.

NS between Atlanta and Lula (where the line from Macon would come in) has excess capacity. If necessary NS could restore some of the second track (pulled up around 1960 when CTC came) and/or the second track of the southeast leg of the Howell wye (pulled up in the 1980s). NS has two routes Atlanta-Macon. Assuming they maintain the ex-CofG to a reasonable speed, I would think they have sufficient capacity there too. And if they don't, they could resume diverting some low-clearance freight B'ham-Columbus-Macon.

If a new plant is built between Lula and Mogul, one would think it would be served from one end only not both.

ctillnc Wrote:
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> Bennie Ray Anderson is the owner of Athens Line
> LLC, the Hartwell Railroad, and the Great Walton
> Railroad. The 16 miles in question go through some
> desolate territory. I suppose it's possible that
> someone wants to build a new plant along the
> railroad, but it seems unlikely.

Perhaps by buying the line, the partnership is freed from traffic restrictions which NS might have imposed in a lease. Neutral access to two major railroads would be an attractive feature for industrial development.