It seems the economic development engine of Midland is moving at two speeds. Wall street and the downtown area is seeing some activity, while we learn in the MRT today that the Container Rail Yard is being held up by the Union Pacific Rail Road (UPRR).
This makes sense, only becasue UPRR is running at near capaciy. Why make a stop between Midland/Odessa on an over-crowded rail line when you don't have too.
If anything I have always wondered why UPRR isn't looking to build two (2) tracks along most of its route through West Texas. It seems this would do wonders for its capacity, but I guess it is too expensive to do without the Government paying you per mile of track laid like they did back in the late 1800's.
Then again, maybe they are frozen by union railway workers who are afraid of modernization and automation which would increase the capacity of the lines without large capital expenditures. Who knows, for now they just count their profits from rail and oil & gas operations.
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