2000's

Overview

• February 23:  Conrail's Milwaukee Jct. interlocking tower in Detroit is closed.  [MT]
• April 1:  The Soo Line depot at Ashland, Wisconsin burns.  The fire started in a restaurant in the station.  The station is being rebuilt.  [DB]
• April:  The U. S. District Court in Detroit struck down the state statute that regulated time limits for blocking of automobile grade crossings.  [MRC-7/2001]
• Summer:  New signals are installed at the former Conrail Rouge Bridge and CP-YD.  These are NYC style tri-color lights which replace searchlight signals.  A new desk-type board is being installed in the Bridge Tower to replace the armstrong levers that are in the tower.  [MRC-1/2001]
• November:  Lake States Railway abandons lines north of Alpena Junction.   [DJB]
• December 19:  The Michigan Dept. of Transportation sold the Lenawee County railroad system to the Adrian & Blissfield Railroad Co. for $1.7 million.  [MRC-1/2001]

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• The Short Cut Bridge over the Rouge River in southwest Detroit was opened a record 2,790 times this year.  An average of 45 trains run across the bridge daily, most of them carrying 3-7 cars of molten steel in "hot bottle" cars.  [MRC-10/01]

• February:  Conrail closes the Milwaukee Jct. Tower in Detroit.  This crossing of the GTW and Conrail was one of the oldest railroad crossings at grade in Michigan.  The wooden structure is torn down later that year.  [CW]

• May 29:  CSX opens new junction track between former Conrail main line at Wyoming Avenue and CSX WB main line at Michigan Avenue in Dearborn.  [DJB]

• October 9:  The Wisconsin Central ceases to exist as the purchase by CN is complete. [DJB]

• December:  The Grand Trunk Western depot at Royal Oak was torn down.  [MRRL]

• December 22:  CN removes rail from Marquette Hill.  The track from Munising Jct. has been out of service for approximately two years.  [OR]

• January:  Central Michigan removes the rail between Hoyt and Merideth St. in Saginaw.

• January 7:  Amtrak train 351 becomes the first in regular service to hit 90 mph between Kalamazoo and Porter Indiana using the new GPS-based Incremental Train Control System.  [MT]

• January:  The former MCRR depot at Johannesburg, in Otsego County, was razed.  The depot had been used as a restaurant for many years (the line, from Sallings, was pulled out in the 1930's.

• July 15:  The Lake State Railroad bridge over the Thunder Bay river in Alpena is replaced.  The new bridge includes 115 pound rail.

• September:  Former Ann Arbor Railroad trackage from Yuma to Thompsonville is removed to make room for a trail.  The line has not been used in years.

• Fall:  CSX abandons its branch from Holland to Hamilton.

• November:  The bridge which carried the NYC Air Line cut off track over M-86 near Three Rivers is removed.

• March 31:  Conrail Shared Assets closes FN interlocking tower in Trenton.  It is now remotely operated from the Bridge tower (former NYC Rouge Bridge).
• June:  CSX removes signals, electric switches and switch locks from their line between Mershon (West Saginaw) and Midland.
• September 18:  Cleveland Cliffs announces that the Lake Superior & Ishpeming Railroad will be absorbed into CC as a division.  Since 2001, CC has purchased the remaining shares of stock not owned by the company.

• September 10:  Mid-Michigan Railroad takes over CSX's Fremont Subdivision through a lease arrangement which extends from West Olive (north of Holland) through Muskegon to Fremont.  [MRF-01/06]
• October 28:  Saginaw Bay Southern takes over CSX's Saginaw area lines, including all rails north of Mt. Morris.  This includes that portion of the Saginaw Subdivision from Mt. Morris to Saginaw, Saginaw Yard, the Dean Subdivision from Saginaw to Midland, and the Bay City Subdivision, for a total of 67 miles.  SBS purchased the track, but is leasing the right-of-way.  Lake State Railway Company is providing service on the lines for SBS.  SBS has rights into Flint's McGrew Yard.  CSX continues to provide dispatching services over the CTC between Mt. Morris and Saginaw.  [MRF-01/06]
• November 7:  Conrail's CP-Waterman is expanded to include additional power switches.  [MRF-01/06]
• November 11:  CSX operates it's last train over the Ludington and Manistee Subdivisions, and Marquette Rail takes over the operation through a lease agreement.  MQT is headquartered in Ludington.  [MRF-01/06]
• December 13:  Conrail's Shaefer Tower in East Dearborn is closed, and demolished on the 16th.  The interlocking plant is converted to automatic operation.  [MRF-01/06]
• December:  Norfolk Southern installs crossovers on their former Wabash line near milepost 17, now identified as "Preston".  NS also installs Traffic Control from MP16 west to MP23.2.  These improvements were made necessary due to increasing traffic as a result of CP bridge traffic between Canada and the Chicago area.  [MRF-01/06]

• January:  The crossing of the Conrail Junction Yard Branch, with the NS spur in Melvindale is interlocked.  The crossing was formerlly a 4-way stop.  [DJB]

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• The Lake State Railway removes it's branch at National City to the nearby gypsum mine.  This line was used to take aggregate to the boat loading facility near Alabaster Jct.