Check out these stories for some background on the Mare Island trackage, Cal Northern, San Francisco Bay RR, Lennar and the new Tri Cities & Olympia SD9 goin to Mare Island: http://www.examiner.com/public-transportation-in-san-francisco/railroad-wars-vallejo http://www.examiner.com/public-tran.../another-shot-fired-the-vallejo-railroad-wars and http://www.examiner.com/public-transportation-in-san-francisco/more-vallejo-railroad-wars
As a refresher, here is the older thread on the topic: http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine/showthread.php?t=96033&highlight=cfnr
And the winner? Published Friday, December 10, 2010, by the Vallejo Times-Herald Track ownership dispute ends Mare Island rail service for now By Jessica A. York A dispute over railroad service to Mare Island has abruptly ended, and local officials say they now hope to get things back on track for businesses on the former naval base. Earlier this week, San Francisco Bay Railroad permanently ended its Vallejo operations after a federal railroad oversight board ruled against the company in a dispute over track ownership rights on Mare Island. City and Lennar Mare Island officials said Thursday that the ruling against San Francisco Bay Railroad may clear the way for a city-hired company to expand service to the island. The federal Surface Transportation Board had granted San Francisco Bay Railroad permission to provide rail service in Vallejo last year. Developer Lennar Mare Island, however, challenged the extent of that right in March. Late last week, the federal board nullified the San Francisco Bay Railroad's carrier application, saying it "materially misrepresents the facts" by not disclosing Lennar Mare Island's partial ownership of the tracks in question. "It is unfortunate that San Francisco Bay Railroad's efforts to gain access to Mare Island forced LMI (Lennar Mare Island) and the city to expend significant time and resources over the past year to protect our ability to arrange for rail service for Mare Island's businesses," Lennar Mare Island spokesman Jason Keadjian wrote in an e-mail to the Times-Herald. The city had hired San Francisco Bay Railroad <http://sfbayrail. com> to repair and maintain a portion of track from Vallejo to Mare Island. In addition, Alstom Transportation also had hired the company to provide service to its Mare Island facility. Alstom site manager Telly Sionides said Thursday it is too early to comment on the company's next step to complete a rail car refurbishing contract with Amtrak. The Alstom facility requires rail service to transport the rail cars to Mare Island. San Francisco Bay Railroad president David Gavrich said Thursday that the company improved railroad conditions in Vallejo by clearing the tracks and repairing signals. It also provided reliable service to Alstom, he said. "Totally unforeseen difficulties" came when his company pursued efforts to expand service to industrial companies across Mare Island. "(Last week's ruling) was a disappointment, but we're not going to appeal that ruling," Gavrich said, indicating that it was unlikely the company would try to resume operations in Vallejo. Lennar Mare Island discontinued rail service in March 2008, citing economic difficulties. After the developer's subsequent negotiations with San Francisco Bay Railroad to restart the expanded service failed in the past year, Lennar Mare Island hired its own service provider, Mare Island Rail Services. The two rail providers came to a standoff on either side of the Mare Island Strait, neither allowing access to their respective tracks. Keadjian said talks of connecting Mare Island businesses to external tracks will soon be reopened with both the city and local businesses. Vallejo Assistant City Manager/Community Development director Craig Whittom said the city supports the federal ruling, and is "assessing what our next steps are regarding the (San Francisco Bay Railroad) agreement and expect to have a strategy very shortly." "We are committed as we always have been to rail service on Mare Island," Whittom said. "We are hopeful that this ruling being in place allows us to move forward to bring service back to the tenants back on the Island."
