I wish that I could copy & past this entire article, since it's quite interesting. How do you value something with no comparable sales? It turns out that N-S and an outside consultant used two alternate routes owned by Norfolk Southern to help value the Cincinnati-owned railroad. The curious detail is that one of them has been unused since the mid-1990s (Cincinnati to Portsmouth, OH). This means that Norfolk-Southern has kept this railroad around but unused for nearly 30 years in anticipation of these negotiations!
If you have a subscription to Business Journals, you will be able to read this:
https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinna...ue-varies.html
Here is the article's most interesting passage:
Quote:
How much would it cost for Norfolk Southern to reroute the railway traffic to other lines at the lowest possible expense?
For example, if Norfolk Southern used tracks that started in the Chicago area and winded through Illinois, a sliver of Kentucky and Tennessee before reaching Georgia, that would add 90 miles to the trip. The costs of securing the rights to use it would make the Cincinnati Southern Railway worth $1.35 billion to $1.63 billion to Norfolk Southern.
If Norfolk Southern used a route that would add 290 miles to the trip and ran through Ohio, along the border of West Virginia and Kentucky, Virginia and into Tennessee before reaching Georgia, it would make the Cincinnati Southern worth $1.6 billion to $2 billion to Norfolk Southern.
A third route would require reactivating a track between the region and Portsmouth known as “the Peavine Route,” which is presently out of service. It would add 260 miles to the journey, making the Cincinnati Southern Railway worth $1.5 billion to $1.9 billion.
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Here is the abandoned Peavine line:
https://railfandepot.com/product/nor...vine-volume-1/