by F-line to Dudley via Park
BandA wrote:Nope. Their trackage rights agreement is nearly unbreakable.Jeff Smith wrote:In the news: New Milford Spectrum
Housatonic line scrutinized after train derailmentCan we get rid of them on some technicality? Trafficking in stolen CT rail ties?
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The only way to get rid of them is to make the Godfather offer to liquidate Maybrook Properties and the privately-owned track. Then the last shell company is just the operating railroad, Danbury Terminal, and there are no more cash swap shennanigans to be had and no more ransom offers to pull for the scrap value of the railroad. Since the management is only in it to loot the company, not grow the business...they'll just divide the sale proceeds amongst the execs instead of re-investing it in the railroad like the $18M in Massachusetts is making rich execs richer instead of going back into the railroad. When that payout is done with and the company is reduced to Danbury Terminal there are only 2 remaining get-rich-quick schemes to be had:
1. Selling their local trackage rights on the Maybrook to P&W first.
2. Selling out entirely on the Berkshire to some other carrier, and folding the tent while splitting the proceeds.
That's the natural sequence of events that'll get them to bugger out of town. Unfortunately it's going to take an overpay by CT to buy out Maybrook Properties and fix up the Maybrook Line enough for P&W to reliably operate it, and then there'll be a second-round state-of-repair bailout when they're recruiting the next carrier that replaces Danbury Terminal. But they won't malinger forever out of pure joy of running a railroad. Once there are no money games left to play management will remove HRRC from the equation by their own voluntary action. It's just going to take awhile for sequence of cash-outs to reach its logical conclusion. In all likelihood they're still going to be around in 2020, although it might be just Danbury Terminal at that point with only those last 1-2 cash-out moves left to go.