Freight Traffic
In the late 1980s the railroad's freight redwood lumber traffic rapidly declined. Georgia-Pacific gradually shifted lumber shipments to more flexible highway trucks until the Northwestern Pacific Railroad was embargoed and shut-down from Willits to the California Northern Railroad and Union Pacific mainline connection near the SF Bay Area. By 1996, before the NWP embargo, CWR lumber shipments were less than 500 cars per year and passenger service became the line's main source of revenue. All freight service was discontinued in 2001. Today the passenger excursion trains are the railroad's sole source of revenue. Freight traffic is likely to restart in 2014 as the NWP is being re-opened. Occasionally, the CWR stores equipment or runs special trains on NWP trackage.
Read more about this topic: California Western Railroad
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