RE: (erielack) Special Day? What if?

[Charles_Walsh_@_Berlex.com]

Dear Paul,

Yep.  We're looking at the same map...and west of Binghamton, as a result
of the EL merger, what wasn't abandoned outright on the DL&W side was
eventually downgraded to branch status during the early EL years (that's
about 200 miles of a 396 mile mainline).  In addition, the Garret Mountain
section of the Boonton Line that you refer to, as well as the mainline west
of Vestal, NY were sold off to the states of New Jersey and New York to
become parts of Route I-80 and NY-17, respectively...for which the railroad
was compensated.  I'm certainly not taking a romanticized view of American
business, as I, too, have gone through a couple of business mergers...and
in fact I'm in the midst of one right now.  What I am saying, however, is
that the only thing that is guaranteed in a merger is that the bigger
company will prevail and will call the shots (for better or for
worse)...and that's what happened in the EL merger.

Chuck



                                                                           
             "Tupaczewski,                                                 
             Paul R (Paul)"                                                
             <paultup_@_lucent.c                                          To 
             om>                       "'Charles_Walsh_@_Berlex.com'"        
                                       <Charles_Walsh_@_Berlex.com>          
             10/18/2006 10:44          mdelvec952_@_aol.com                  
             AM                                                         cc 
                                       erielack_@_lists.elhts.org            
                                                                   Subject 
                                       RE: (erielack) Special Day?  What   
                                       if?                                 
                                                                           
                                                                           
                                                                           
                                                                           
                                                                           
                                                                           




> The shame in the EL
> merger, other than what it did to a great organization, was
> that much of
> the DL&W disappeared from the map.

Are you looking at the same railroad atlas that I am? Please tell me, other
than the short distance betweeen Totowa-Paterson on the Boonton Line and
the redundant duplicate sections between Buffalo-Binghamton, how you come
up with the statement that the shame in the EL merger was that "much of the
DL&W disappeared from the map?"  Are you referring to Conrail, not EL?

Maybe I'm just jaded by today's business world, but "those are the breaks."
Romance doesn't really have a place in business, and though the decisions
made were obviously Erie-influenced, the fact remained that two parallel
lines were just plain wasteful.

A lot of the lamenting going on here stems from deep-seeded love for a
particular railroad, moreso than looking logically at the business
ramifications of decisions such as abandonments.

I certainly would have loved to have seen a thriving DL&W and Erie running
around today. Then again, how many people could have imagined the
once-great AT&T split up and now almost unrecognizable after mergers and
"reinventions" of itself? My statements apply to ANY corporation. That's
just business.

             - Paul, back to living in my "fantasy railroad world" via
modeling :)




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