Track Rights on a shortline?

[FCIN]

Gary;

There is what is known as Reciprocal Switching in some locations. Here is a simple definition for reciprocal switching: "an interchange of inbound and outbound carload freight among railroads in which the cars are switched by one railroad to or from the siding of another under a regular switching charge that is usually absorbed by the carrier receiving the line-haul".

Been a long time since my freight agent/management days, but as I recall, we had this situation in Lexington, KY, between the L&N and the C&O on what was known as the Belt Line. In the 70's the switching charge was about $25 per car. Most of the traffic that I recall being handled this way consisted of lumber going to a couple of the lumber dealers located on the Belt Line. If the car came in via C&O, they'd deliver it or if it came in via L&N we'd deliver it. In most cases as I recall, the switching charge was added to the freight charge or included in the rate division.

Here's a link to the Union Pacific page pertaining to this service http://www.uprr.com/customers/shortline/...itch.shtml and also the current Union Pacific Reciprocal Switching Circular (PDF file) that shows the charges at various locations where it's in use: http://www.uprr.com/customers/shortline/..._uprsc.pdf. You'll note that the switching charges (just like demurrage charges) are much higher these days. You can do a Google search on Reciprocal Switching and probably get a lot more information if you're in to the freight rate end of things, but overall the answer to your question would be yes you can do that.