Asytek.162
net.railroad
utzoo!decvax!cca!hplabs!menlo70!sytek!msm@sri-unix
Sun May 9 10:21:25 1982
(From fa.railroad) Building a Rail System To Serve New England
>From menlo70!ucbvax!RUSSELL@NYU Sun May 9 05:04:54 1982
Date: Fri 7-May-1982 21:17-EDT
From: Bill Russell <RUSSELL AT NYU>
To: railroad at MIT-MC
Subject: Building a Rail System To Serve New England
(From the NY Times, Friday, May 7th, 1982, by Daniel F. Cuff)
Timothy Mellon said yesterday that his New England rail system
should be in place by Labor Day.
Mr. Mellon, 39 years old, a descendent of the wealthy Pittsburgh
family, has been working for a year and a half to build the system
out of three railroads - the Maine Central, the Boston & Maine and
the Delaware & Hudson.
Why bother with these old rail lines? ``Because I perceived a
business opportunity,'' Mr. Mellon said. The Maine Central, which
he already owns, is currently profitable. ``Look at Maine,''
Mr. Mellon said. ``One major factor is that $2 billion has been
invested in the paper industry in the last decade.''
Another opportunity for railroading in New England, he says, is
the number of utilities and industries switching to coal from oil,
which means coal-hauling contracts. The energy crisis, even
though it is not in great focus at the moment, is still having its
impact, and it costs four times more to ship by highway than rail,
Mr. Mellon said.
Last month Mr. Mellon's company, Guilford Transportation Industries
of Durham, Conn. received permission from the Interstate Commerce
Commission to purchase and control the Boston & Maine for $24.3
million. A Federal judge overseeing the railroad's bankruptcy
proceedings must still approve the plan, under which the railroad's
creditors would be paid.
In July, the I.C.C. will rule on Mr. Mellon's petition to buy the
Delaware & Hudson for $500,000 from the Norfolk & Western Railway.
If all goes well, and Mr. Mellon is confident it will, he will have
by the autumn a rail system that would serve parts of all of the
New England states and would stretch from Montreal to Washington,
D.C., including service in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
The three lines would be operated as seperate entities, Mr. Mellon
said, with close cooperation on certain functions such as purchasing.
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