From: utzoo!decvax!cca!hplabs!menlo70!sytek!msm@sri-unix Newsgroups: net.railroad Title: (From fa.railroad) Building a Rail System To Serve New England Article-I.D.: sytek.162 Posted: Sun May 9 10:21:25 1982 Received: Tue May 11 01:15:53 1982 >From menlo70!ucbvax!RUSSELL@NYU Sun May 9 05:04:54 1982 Date: Fri 7-May-1982 21:17-EDT From: Bill RussellTo: 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.