Ludington Daily News Nov. 8, 1979
Ferry
Business Turned Away At Frankfort
Ann Arbor R. R. Short Of
Boats
Unable to get state endorsement of an agreement to
utilize the C&O carferry Spartan to haul freight for the Ann
Arbor Railroad, Michigan Interstate Railway Co. was forced today to
begin turning away rail business from the Ann Arbor line.
Michigan
Interstate, which operates the bankrupt Ann Arbor Railroad under
contract with the state, placed shipping embargoes in effect at
Manitowoc Thursday and Kewaunee today.
These embargoes, in force
until midnight Nov. 23, limit on a reservation basis the number of
freight cars which will be accepted for shipment by the Ann Arbor
carferry service to and from Kewaunee. They also restrict Ann Arbor
shipments out of Manitowoc to those freight cars already at the port
or enroute to it.
This latest development means that other rail
carriers will be picking up Ann Arbor business. It does not mean that
the C&O carferries will receive more business.
“I tried
to get the C&O to take the traffic, but they will not accept,”
Vincent Malanaphy chairman and president of Michigan Interstate, told
the Daily News today.
The C&O was prepared last week to lease
the Spartan to Michigan Interstate while one of the Ann Arbor ferries
undergoes inspection and repairs for three or four weeks.
When the
Spartan was found to be too large to operate out of Frankfort, the
C&O and Michigan Interstate worked out a contract under which the
Spartan would have hauled the Ann Arbor freight into Ludington
instead. But the state vetoed that plan Wednesday afternoon.
Ed
Goodman, Administrator of the Rail and Port Facilities Division of
the state transportation Department, told the Daily News Thursday
high costs, labor considerations and the C&O abandonment issue
were all factors in the state's decision not to approve the
arrangement.
Without the short-term use of the Spartan, Michigan
Interstate had, Malanaphy said, “no alternative” to the
embargoes other than to “shut the whole (Ann Arbor) operation
down.
“But after spending two years on building up traffic,
we don't want to disrupt business any more than we have
to.”
Malanaphy said state officials “didn't give me
any justification” for not allowing Michigan Interstate to use
the Spartan.
“It's a hell of a way to run a railroad,”
Malanaphy said.
The C&O, while continuing pursuit of complete
abandonment of its carferry operations, currently is operating only
one of its three carferries, the City of Midland.
The Spartan was
put back in mothballs Wednesday after the agreement to haul freight
for the Ann Arbor Railroad fell through.
From a AA Bulletin Order
Effective 12:01 A. M. June 15, 1979 Track is jointly used by the
C&O Railroad and Ann Arbor Railroad between west yard limit board
Clare (MP 180.1 and the Hub Track Switch, Mt. Pleasant (MP 163.89)
Ann Arbor Timetable and Rules govern.
Although the C&O had
been part of the Chessie System since February 26, 1973 and the
former Ann Arbor Railroad was operated by Michigan Interstate
Railway. This bulletin Order made Michigan Railroad history.
That
same day, Chessie System Local K-14 took to the Ann Arbor rails to
make the trip to Mt. Pleasant
The Benzie County Record-Patriot Dec.
26, 1979
one of the sadder events of the seventies was the day in
June, 1974 when the City of Green Bay carferry was towed from the
Elberta harbor en route to Spain to be used for scrap. The car
ferries and the Ann Arbor Railroad has been a center of controversy
and change throughout the decade. Presently, Michigan Interstate
Railway runs the operation. There currently are two carferries
running out of Elberta - the Viking and the City of Milwaukee, the
later being brought into action from downstate a year ago. Engine
repair on the Arthur K. Atkinson, which has laid dormant most of the
decade, has begun and may be completed in the next three months.