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GEORGIA BULLETIN, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 9 1967 3
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A geographically correct map. Copyright by RAND McNALLY & COMPANY, R.L. 67-S-10.
The Western & Atlantic Railroad belongs to you —
all the people of Georgia. It’s your railroad. As the owners,
and as taxpayers, you want the highest rental for this val
uable railroad.
For years, the Louisville & Nashville Railroad has
leased the W&A for the ridiculously low price of $540,000
annually. L&N receives some $232,000 each year from
renting parts of the land, which means that the railroad
actually costs the L&N a paltry $308,000. The L&N didn’t
even pay state income taxes on the W&A until Georgia
brought suit and forced payment a few days ago of
$251,649 in back taxes.
With L&N’s lease of the W&A expiring in 1969, the
State of Georgia, seeking a rental that would fairly rep
resent the value of the railroad, asked for bids of a fixed
annual sum for the new lease. L&N bid $900,000 per year.
Southern Railway bid $995,000 per year. These were the
only bids that met the Commission’s bidding require
ments. The Georgia Properties Control Commission
awarded the lease to Southern, the highest bidder, to
be ratified by the Georgia Legislature.
Now the L&N is carrying on a campaign of mis
representation and distortion of facts to block the lease
to Southern. It cries “monopoly” for self-serving pur
poses. '
There Can Be No Monopoly
The able and distinguished Georgians on the Prop
erties Control Commission have seen to that. They wrote
a guarantee of trackage rights for the L&N into the lease.
These trackage rights are shown on the map. By using
them, L&N can continue to handle its through business
as it does now between Atlanta and Chattanooga and
points beyond. Long-haul shippers won’t be affected in
any way.
Local shippers along the W&A will gain under
Southern operation because they will have direct access
SOUTHERN
to all points on Southern Railway System, including
single-line service to all the industrial Piedmont area, and
extending through Virginia to Washington, D. C., and be
yond to the great markets of the Northeast. Of course,
present routes and rates to the North, South and West
will remain in effect.
The use of trackage rights is widespread in the rail
road business and they work to the satisfaction of rail
roads and customers. L&N and Southern already make
joint use of each other’s tracks at several places. As the
map shows, Southern uses the tracks of L&N between
Chattanooga and Stevenson, Alabama, for Southern’s
important Memphis and western-route traffic, and L&N
uses Sduthern’s tracks at other locations.
The Georgia Public Service Commission does a
splendid job for the public in its regulation of power com
panies, telephone companies, gas companies, trucks,
railroads and other public utilities.
L&N’s charges of “monopoly” cast an unwarranted
reflection on the dedicated and conscientious Georgians
who are members of the Properties Control Commission.
They have exhaustively studied the lease of this railroad
for nearly two years. As the chosen representatives of
the State, they have covered all the angles for the bene
fit of the people they represent — the citizens of Georgia.
Where Was L&N?
Considering L&N’s sudden interest in an alleged
monopoly of the W&A, why hasn’t L&N been concerned
about the real monopoly that will exist in the State of
Florida if its parent company, Atlantic Coast Line, merges
with the Seaboard Air Line to control all of the railroad
mileage in central and west Florida?
Where was L&N when its parent, ACL, proposed that
the South Georgia Railway (later taken over by Southern)
be allowed to die a painless death? Where was L&N
when its parent, ACL, offered to buy the Georgia & Florida
(later bought by Southern) and proposed to abandon the
main line? And why didn’t L&N raise its voice when
testimony in the ACL-Seaboard merger case showed that
resulting traffic losses would leave The Georgia Railroad
worth little more than scrap value at the expiration of the
lease to L&N-ACL in 1980?
Southern Has Only ONE LINE
The map above, which is geographically correct,
refutes the claim by L&N that Southern now has two com
petitive lines between Atlanta and Chattanooga — one
by Rome and Austell, and the other the Central of Georgia.
The 240-mile Central of Georgia line is non-competitive
from the standpoint of time in transit and the additional
cost of the much longer haul. It is 86 miles longer than
Southern’s line and 106 miles longer than the W&A.
It would make as much sense to say that Southern’s
line from Chattanooga to Atlanta, via Knoxville, Asheville
arid Spartanburg is a Chattanooga-to-Atlanta route as it
does to claim that the Central of Georgia line by way of
Cedartown, Bremen, Newnan, Griffin and Hapeville is a
line to Atlanta. Clearly, Southern has but one line to
Atlanta.
Wherever Southern goes, it helps communities
grow. This will be true, too, of the W&A. Leased to
Southern, it will become stronger and increasingly more
useful to the communities it serves.
Yes, Stop-Look-Listen... and think about it — THINK
HARD — because this is your railroad. It’s time that this
railroad became more useful and profitable to the people
of Georgia than it has been in the past 75 years under
lease to the L&N.
Your interests — and Georgia’s — will best be served
by leasing the W&A to the highest bidder, Southern Rail
way. No other railroad has shown as much interest in the
welfare of Georgia and Georgians as has Southern.
RAILWAY SYSTE
LOOK AHEAD-LOOK SOUTH