Montana Rail Link may become a fallen flag

[wazzou]

BNSF has coveted it for a long time.
The fact that only 10% of MRL’s traffic is generated online and they essentially just bridge BNSF’s trains, it was finally motivation enough.

[nkalanaga]

It was a mutual decision, so I doubt that any penalties are involved.  MRL wanted out, due to most of the traffic being BNSF anyway, and BNSF wanted control back, for the same reason.  Neither party feels that they were harmed by the decision, so no penalties.  They'll just terminate the lease.

[wazzou]

It's not surprising that overhead traffic grew to 90% of revenues.
The MRL over the last decade made changes to it's marketing strategy that less aggressively pursued online traffic with the same fervor it had since start-up.
MRL was also trying to work with the STB and FRA to change the status of Class I, Class II and Class III revenue thresholds that had seen little change in many years.
They were making too much money to stay in their current class status and were soon to be subject to more regulation and were facing the enormous costs associated with the installation of PTC.
Also, it's been long rumored that the next generation of the Washington family was not interested in the rail operations aspect of the Company.

[trainzluvr]

Interesting information, thanks.

I also wonder was there ever an attempt by the employees (and/or a 3rd party) to purchase the company from the Washington family?

I suppose the State of Montana wasn't interested in owning a railroad either?

[nkalanaga]

Probably not, since the tracks stayed in BN/BNSF ownership.  MRL just leased them, so if anyone else took over, I suspect they would have had to renegotiate the lease.