# Rogue Rail Car Crosses Border Undetected



## NS VIA Fan (Aug 29, 2012)

At least rail cars can still cross the bridge which is subject to abandonment proceedings:

http://www.thespec.c...d-across-border



> No one noticed the rogue rail car cross the border from Niagara Falls, N.Y. to Niagara Falls, Ont., in the wee hours of Aug. 12.
> Somehow, the rail car left the CSX rail yard on American soil and rolled across the Whirlpool Rapids Bridge before halting in the Niagara Via Rail station, which was closed for the night.
> 
> CSX didn't notice. Neither the U.S. Customs and Border Protection nor the Canada Border Services Agency noticed. The Niagara Falls Bridge Commission, owner of the bridge, didn't notice.


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## amtrakwolverine (Aug 29, 2012)

Nothing has been mentioned about the rail deck being abandoned. Work was underway to do repairs to the bridge so I don't think it's going to be abandoned. There was talks a few years ago that unless amtrak paid to maintained the bridge it would be abandoned but nothing has been said recently.


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## NS VIA Fan (Aug 29, 2012)

amtrakwolverine said:


> There was talks a few years ago that unless amtrak paid to maintained the bridge it would be abandoned but nothing has been said recently.


No, as recently as May 3, 2012:

http://www.easternra...ge-abandonment/

And the Canadian portion is still on CN's 3 year network plan to discontinue

http://www.cn.ca/doc...20120605-en.pdf

(Page 6: Grimsby Subdivision Mile 0.35 to 0.47 (centre of bridge (US/Can Border to the VIA Station)

CN doesn't own the bridge.....just the track structure. So my take on this is another party will acquired the track structure and lease it to Amtrak and VIA to continue the Maple Leaf without interuption.


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## amtrakwolverine (Aug 29, 2012)

CN wants to give up ownership of the rails since they no longer use them and that's understandable. They are negotiating with amtrak to transfer ownership of the tracks from CN to AMTRAK But there was talks before of the NFBC abandoning the bridge itself unless amtrak funded the needed repairs. Since there has been nothing new of that I assume amtrak worked out a deal.


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## NS VIA Fan (Aug 29, 2012)

amtrakwolverine said:


> But there was talks before of the NFBC abandoning the bridge itself unless amtrak funded the needed repairs.......


Perhaps the track structure but NFBC would never abandon the bridge......the bridge is to important as a highway crossing!

It's shown as the "Whirlpool Bridge" here:

http://niagarafallsb...at_is_nfbc.php3


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## jis (Aug 29, 2012)

amtrakwolverine said:


> CN wants to give up ownership of the rails since they no longer use them and that's understandable. They are negotiating with amtrak to transfer ownership of the tracks from CN to AMTRAK But there was talks before of the NFBC abandoning the bridge itself unless amtrak funded the needed repairs. Since there has been nothing new of that I assume amtrak worked out a deal.


As mentioned by VIA Fan, the bridge itself has never been slated for abandonment.

It is more likely that it is New York State and not Amtrak that will acquire the track and fund maintenance of the Bridge deck since Maple Leaf, if it continues to operate will be funded entirely by New York State as part of the PRIIA Section 209 transfer.


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