The Milwaukee Road, A Needless Loss
Posted: Tuesday, June 02, 2009
by Adam Burns
http://american-rails.com
Over the years I have read about several tragedies befalling railroads, such as the Penn Central disaster, the northeastern rail market collapse during the 1970s, and the Rock Island debacle of the 1970s.
However, none, not even the PC collapse, truly compare to the bizarre, dumbfounding, and needless loss of the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railroad, better known as the Milwaukee Road, during the 1970s (and even worse that it was allowed to be torn up and sold piecemeal after bankruptcy). I have been studying the Milwaukee for a few years now and it is just stunning what the management, and proceeding bankruptcy court, allowed happen to the railroad.
Here was a railroad that not only had multiple (and ample) opportunities to pull itself out of a future bankruptcy but also the chance to completely dominate western railroading, even after the Burlington Northern merger of 1970 (which combined four railroads the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy; Great Northern; Northern Pacific; and Spokane, Portland & Seattle). Not only did the Milwaukee dominate the Port of Seattle and moved nearly 80% of its originating traffic but also nearly 50% of the total container traffic originating from the Northwest in general. The Milwaukee Road, being the farthest stretching railroad in the lower 48 states prior to 1980 (it stretched from Louisville, Kentucky to Seattle), also had a lucrative chance to interchange traffic with the Southern at Louisville, Kentucky to move freights heading to Chicago as well as to the Pacific Northwest but turned down the opportunity as it did not want to spend the necessary maintenance to upgrade what was essentially a branch line.
Further still was chance in the 1970s for the Milwaukee to completely overhaul its western electrified lines and close the "gap" between Avery, Idaho and Othello, Washington with General Electric funding the entire project. However, again, the Milwaukee declined yet another golden opportunity (and, of course, when on to rip down the wires after 1974 just after oil prices skyrocketed). The Milwaukee also had the chance to purchase the C&NW outright in the 1970s but declined the offer. If one takes the time to read about what happened to the Milwaukee Railroad, beginning in 1970, one cannot help but come away with an honest belief that the railroad's management had simply given up on railroading and wanted anything to be out of the industry.
To top all of this, the CMStP&P began refusing traffic during the 1970s (as they claimed they did not have adequate car supply although there were hundreds of cars sitting in storage), to the tune of over $64 million in a single year! Perhaps most dumbfounding of all, however, was the discovery (after the bankruptcy) of expenses being double-entered in the books. After the ICC figured proper numbers for the railroad's books during its final years, even after all of the opportunities turned away and traffic refused over Lines West, during its last year of operation the route still made profits of nearly $3 million.
In any event, what could have been with the Milwaukee is startling. Having eleven gateways in the west to interchange traffic as a result of the BN merger (one of which was the Southern Pacific began sending the Milwaukee enormous amounts of traffic), a Pacific Northwest main line that was the fastest and most efficient, a domination of traffic originating out of Puget Sound, the opportunity to ally with the Southern Railway and operate trains between Chicago-Atlanta and points further west with its advantageous connection to Louisville, and a chance to purchase the C&NW to further increase its traffic base, the Milwaukee Road would very likely have ruled supreme in the Midwest and Northwest and there is also a very good possibility that it would have done so to such a degree that there could be one more Class I railroad still operating today, continuing to give the current operator in the Pacific Northwest, the BNSF Railway, significant competition.
In all and everything aside, the allowance of the bankruptcy court to sell off and abandon the Milwaukee's western lines, even after it was proven they were still profitable is perhaps most tragic of all. This can likely be contributed to the perception railroads were given by the public during this period in American history. However, the result of the Milwaukee's downfall and loss of its key western line to the Northwest coast has cost three state's their railroad and an important route upon which shippers, and our economy as a whole, could still very much use to move intermodal and other freight points east and west. For more reading about the railroad's collapse please visit the below resource.
The Milwaukee Road
This Article has been viewed 269 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
No comments yet.We want your comments! If you can read this, you don't have javascript enabled, so you can't use this comment system. Please enable javascript.