MikeM
OBS Chief
It was a little different than that... Amtrak continued to maintain the waiting room and station agent in the Cheyenne depot at least in the CZ days. You boarded a bus then to Borie, and there was a metal building (looked like most UP MOW buildings) that was finished inside with heat and bathrooms. So it really wasn't all that bad.This is an interesting subject in of itself. Through the years, how many times has Amtrak rerouted for operational convenience for itself, or its host railroad?This is not a question that anyone here could answer with any sort of certainty. In fact it would probably take a good deal of discussion, arguing between lawyers adn various andsundry government agencies before a conclusion would be reached.Let me ask a new question...
If BNSF did not want Amtrak on this portion of the transcon, do they have to let them on? Or can they go the UP route and say they have to pay a bunch of money to upgrade the lines if they want to use them?
If they do not have to, then that would mean the whole route would be at risk.
It could be argued that this change would be much like the change from going through Phoenix to taking the primary freight route through Maricopa, except on a much larger scale. Did Amtrak have to kick in any moey to UP for that to happen?
But, that is just one of many points of discussion that could go on for multiple pages.
Remember when the SFZ ceased the 100 mile backwards running from Denver to serve Cheyenne, and built a new 'station' platform at Borie in the middle of nowhere with a Greyhound bus as the waiting room for passengers going in and out of Cheyenne? I believe Amtrak initiated that and paid for it, but more than made up the cost with the saving in time and crew expense.
Now, after the CZ moved to the D&RG routing, UP promptly tore that building down, so when Amtrak ran the Desert Wind Pioneer over the UP from Denver west, Borie was a paved pad with a flat concrete pad where the depot used to stand. UP also used the service interruption as an opportunity to basically kick Amtrak out of all their depots - places where Amtrak formerly had waiting rooms turned into "AmShacks", which in Wyoming in February really weren't that great.
Last edited by a moderator: