Future of the Lakeview branch

It is about 150 miles from Lakeview to KFalls by rail, that is a LOT of mileage for say 40 cars a week. The good news is about 95 of those miles are in reasonably good shape having been a secondary main up until 20 some odd years ago. But the 55 miles from Alturas to Lakeview is in questionable shape. I used to be a railroad cost analyst for SP, and did a lot of branchline abandonment studies. I suspect the operation can limp along with enough cash flow to pay direct operating costs, but once the need for some kind of major MOW expense comes up there will be no money readily available. Then it will probably boil down to some kind of government bailout or abandonment. Not a bright future. Which means we need to get our pix while we can!

JBWX