Re: Abandonment Rio Grande San Juan Alamosa Durango

The ICC examiner's report recommending abandonment was issued August 16, 1968. While it was not final, pending Commission approval, the examiner did find that the alternative truck service being offered by the DRGW was reasonable and within management's discretion without prior Commission approval. While the folks protesting abandonment presumably could have appealed, gone to court, whatever to try to force the DRGW to run trains, they probably figured the evidence was against them, why waste the money on lawyers. The Commission approved the examiners report on July 14, 1969, but even then actual legal abandonment was subject to implementation of some labor protective and tariff conditions.So administratively it was a drawn out process. But once the examiners report came out the game was pretty much up. The key Commission condition was that the DRGW provide the service via trucks for rates that were no higher than they charged for rail service. Since trucks were cheaper to operate than the trains, this was ok with the railroad.

JBWX



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/10/2018 09:55AM by John West.