A couple of weekends ago I was exploring the rail lines in Virginia and stopped at Haber to take a picture. Haber is on the NS (ex-Southern) route of the Crescent south of Charlottesville.
One of the local business owners came out and expressed disgust at the railroad. He said the railroad had taken out the sidings at all the small towns along the route, including one in Haber.
Even though car load freight is disappearing (not enough profit margin for big rail), could they be doing more harm than good by eliminating the service? I can't always tell if rail is leaving the customers or customers are leaving rail, especially when a main line is involved.
The main line will no longer connect the small towns to the rest of the system; it will just be a noisy intruder.
Posted by EmpireBuilder (Member # 2036) on :
It's sadly something that is happening all over. My small town that I've grown up in had its rail removed a few years ago. Another town in the area lost its rail some time ago, and as a result they have huge piles of grain, corn, soybeans and so on that are left sitting outside because it can't get shipped by truck nearly fast enough.