Article: Upper Peninsula's Rail Connection to the Lower Peninsula - 1964

Editors Note: In 1964, the Soo Line railroad applied to the ICC to shorten their transport time from the Upper Peninsula to Chicago by using trackage rights on the LS&I between Marquette to Eben Junction. During this period, the ICC was also considering the proposed abandonment of the Chief Wawatam, and rail lines feeding it on both peninsulas. The ICC held hearings and the Escanaba Daily Press wrote an editorial on March 19, 1964 which describes the bigger strategy of the State of Michigan which was to preserve cross-lake rail traffic. Here is the editorial, which is a good explanation of the situation in 1964:

Soo Line Hearing

The first week of hearings at Marquette on the Soo Line Railroad's application to the Interstate Commerce Commission for permission to share trackage between Marquette and Eben with the Lake Superior & Ishpeming Railroad is in and it's indicated that there's a week or two more to go, in Marquette or in Washington.

The contest is essentially one between the Soo Line Railroad, which wants to create a shorter route from the Marquette Range to Lake Michigan and to Chicago, and the North Western Railway which already has such a route. The Soo ships from the U.P. now roundabout and it wants to go more directly south. All railroads want to keep traffic on their lines as long as possible rather than turn it over to other lines and share their income.

There was stress in the Marquette hearing on quicker service by rail, and obviously this is a factor which has helped trucks get business away from the railroads. But an even greater reason for shorter hauls, say rail experts, is reliability. All charges on a shortest haul rate, so the shipper doesn't save money by eliminating the longer haul, but he does get assurance that his goods will be in Chicago on the day promised.

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The State of Michigan has a great interest in the Marquette hearing. It isn't putting in a case, but it is questioning witnesses to learn the dimensions of the changes proposed. While it has never been spelled out officially, the State of Michigan's greatest concern at the present about Upper Peninsula railroad service is in connection with the deterioration of the Mackinac Gateway.

The Upper Peninsula is the tail of the Michigan dog and it  never wags the big part of the state below the Straits of Mackinac. If the Soo Line and its other two railroad partners (the NYC and PRR) in the Mackinac Transportation Company (the "Chief Wawatam") are successful with their plea to halt railroad car ferry service at the Straits of Mackinac, railroad transportation in the top of the Lower Peninsula will be seriously affected.

Perhaps even more important is the psychological effect. The railroads serving the top of the Lower Peninsula have asked permission to abandon 300 miles of track! Michigan's state government, in fighting this deterioration of its surface transportation system, will be doing everything possible to maintain the Mackinac gateway.

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At present freight moving out of the Upper Peninsula eastward can go by the way of the Sault (through Canada), by way of the Mackinac gateway to Lower Michigan, or by way of the Manistique gateway, which has a railway car ferry service like Mackinac. There's also an inter-peninsula railroad car ferry service between Menominee and Frankfort, but the state seems not much impressed by its potential, noting that Manitowoc, WI to the south handles so much more across-Lake Michigan traffic.

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Michigan would be inclined to sacrifice Manistique to maintain Mackinac, if it came to a choice between the two. It obviously isn't encouraging eastbound traffic to move by way of Chicago or the Sault in preference to moving through the Mackinac gateway. The state's transportation experts who have been studying the situation are impressed with the variety of reasons for routing traffic in certain directions. They've found out that the reasons for route choice are as numerous as the colors in Joseph's coat.

The Manistique & Lake Superior Railroad lives on traffic it gets from the Soo Line and hauls to Manistique for ferry movement by its parent Ann Arbor Railroad. It is in trouble that's increased by the Soo's proposal for a Marquette route south through Eben and Rapid River and it's opposing the Soo's application. So is the Milwaukee Road, which sees its U.P. income threatened.

If this isn't complex enough, we have the state's interest in trying to maintain inter-peninsula transportation and to move as much Upper Peninsula traffic as possible into the Lower Peninsula.