Surface Transportation Board nixes Midland exemption themountainmail.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from themountainmail.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Opposition to the plan to revive long-dormant rail traffic on Tennessee Pass is growing by the day.
Residents of Chaffee, Lake and Eagle counties buried the Surface Transportation Board this month with opposition to the plan proposed by a Texas-based, short-line operator to begin running freight and possibly passengers on tracks that last saw trains in 1997. Environmental groups, county commissioners and a competitor on Colorado’s Eastern Plains have joined the chorus of opposition, asking the federal transportation board to either reject or further scrutinize the deal.
Chaffee and Eagle county commissioners are weighing in on Rio Grande Pacific Corp.’s push to run crude oil trains on a proposed new railroad in Utah that might lead to tankers of Uinta Basin crude rolling through Avon, Minturn, Buena Vista, Browns Canyon and Salida.
While many unknowns still linger about the lease of the Tennessee Pass rail line announced on New Yearsâ Eve, rafting outfitters are concerned about the return of train service on the tracks along the Arkansas River, which have been unused since 1997.
âWe were kinda hit by it at the 11th hour, basically,â said Bob Hamel, executive director of the Arkansas River Outfitterâs Association. On Tuesday, the AROA voted unanimously to write a letter of opposition to the lease.
âWeâre obviously very concerned about what the cargo is,â Hamel said. âWe know we have this rail line here with the potential that it could open again, after millions and millions of dollars of repair and upgrading. But our biggest concern is the type of cargo it might present.â
Union Pacific leases out Tennessee Pass line themountainmail.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from themountainmail.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.