Journeymouse wrote:
In Britain, some of the railways are being re-opened.
Snip!
Is anything similar happening State-side?
I finally got around to thinking about this...others have posted on the re-use of abandoned rail corridors in North America, but I don't think Journeymouse's question has really been answered. I'll do that now
Railways are structured differently in North America than they are in the UK (and Europe for that matter). Whereas in the UK, they have had a nationalized rail system for the last 50 years (the infrastruture is still owned by one entity, even if there are multiple operators on the tracks), in North American railways (railroads in the USA) have been run by and large as private enterprises. We have many examples of the "Wensleydale" railway - they are called Short lines. Typically, they buy up lines that larger railways want to abandon. Due to their more flexible work operations (less overhead, non-union staff) they are able to make a profit where the larger railways are not. There are actually several large coporations (RailAmerica for one) that one and operate many shortlines across North America. In other cases, a local government may partner with businesses to maintain rail operations to serve local industries. There are also many tourist lines (like the Bluebell or Severn Valley lines in the UK) that run steam trains on old sections of railways that have been abandoned.
Typically, once a railway line is abandoned, it is very hard to get it back into service as a railway. Other than the examples mentioned by Cracker, I can't think of any - and the BN line was never officially abandoned, only mothballed. Railways tend to try to sell the rail corridors as quickly as they can to reduce liability and make some sort of return.
Dr. Beeching has been given a really bad rap - he's not my favourite either (he shut down the Swange line, which thankfully has recently been re-opened as a tourist railway), but if you look at the rail system in the UK at the time, there was a lot of waste and duplication. Unfortunately, things don't seem to have gotten much better since then...
Sorry for the long post folks, but Journeymouse's question is on a topic which is near and dear to Tranplanner's heart.
PC
Who really REALLY loves trains.