BJORK@SU-SCORE.ARPA (Steven Bjork) (05/09/86)
The Eureka Southern was born when Brian Whipple (ex of the SP) made agreements with the Northwestern Pacific to purchase the line from just north of Willits to Eureka. The Southern Pacific had spent many millions of dollars keeping this part of the NWP open over the years, and had applied for abandonment after a tunnel fire caused the collapse of the bore. The primary source of revenue on this line is lumber, a commodity that is highly subject to fluctuations in the market, and hence in volume. With the outlook for this part of the NWP rather grim, the SP (parent of the NWP) decided that abandonment was the best alternative. This caused great anguish to the people in Eureka and others along the line that wanted continued rail service. It also gave the media yet another oppertunity to lambast the SP, with the local TV stations lavishing attention to every move the SP made. During the lengthy course of the abandonment hearings a court ruled that the SP had to reopen the collapsed tunnel(!). Despite the attitude displayed by the media it was interesting to get brief glimpses of the NWP on video. One station even had some footage of the film the SP made after the disasterous floods in 1964, showing 200 or so feet of track hanging in midair after a washout. During this time the SP and the Santa Fe decided to merge. This apparently had a big effect on the way the SP was going about the abandonment. With the focus of the SP shifting, a decision was made (by whom is unknown to me) that only scrap value of the northern part of the NWP would be asked. With the tunnel opened, and a reasonable price being asked by the SP, Mr. Whipple was able to get financing for his plan to purchase the part of the NWP up for sale. All during this time the local media made it seem that the entire NWP was to be torn up. In any case the Eureka Southern is able to offer service that the SP (NWP) was unable to, not because the SP didn't care, but because of the Union stranglehold on the railroads... The ES is exempt from the problems of the SP because of it's short length. This is a national trend, with the big railroads getting bigger and shedding their branch lines to independent operators, who then are able to work without the restrictions imposed by Union contracts. Well, it appears that the Eureka Southern has survived this year's storms, and the traffic levels seem to give it at least another year's survival. With the SP under terrific pressure from many directions, and the ES having first rights to the rest of the NWP, it seems that the ES has managed to make all the right moves in a very tricky game. --Steve -------