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Ludington Daily News Nov. 8, 1979
Ferry Business Turned Away At Frankfort
Ann Arbor R. R. Short Of Boats
Unable to get state endorsement of an agreement to utilize the C&O carferry Spartan to haul freight for the Ann Arbor Railroad, Michigan Interstate Railway Co. was forced today to begin turning away rail business from the Ann Arbor line.
Michigan Interstate, which operates the bankrupt Ann Arbor Railroad under contract with the state, placed shipping embargoes in effect at Manitowoc Thursday and Kewaunee today.
These embargoes, in force until midnight Nov. 23, limit on a reservation basis the number of freight cars which will be accepted for shipment by the Ann Arbor carferry service to and from Kewaunee. They also restrict Ann Arbor shipments out of Manitowoc to those freight cars already at the port or enroute to it.
This latest development means that other rail carriers will be picking up Ann Arbor business. It does not mean that the C&O carferries will receive more business.
“I tried to get the C&O to take the traffic, but they will not accept,” Vincent Malanaphy chairman and president of Michigan Interstate, told the Daily News today.
The C&O was prepared last week to lease the Spartan to Michigan Interstate while one of the Ann Arbor ferries undergoes inspection and repairs for three or four weeks.
When the Spartan was found to be too large to operate out of Frankfort, the C&O and Michigan Interstate worked out a contract under which the Spartan would have hauled the Ann Arbor freight into Ludington instead. But the state vetoed that plan Wednesday afternoon.
Ed Goodman, Administrator of the Rail and Port Facilities Division of the state transportation Department, told the Daily News Thursday high costs, labor considerations and the C&O abandonment issue were all factors in the state's decision not to approve the arrangement.
Without the short-term use of the Spartan, Michigan Interstate had, Malanaphy said, “no alternative” to the embargoes other than to “shut the whole (Ann Arbor) operation down.
“But after spending two years on building up traffic, we don't want to disrupt business any more than we have to.”
Malanaphy said state officials “didn't give me any justification” for not allowing Michigan Interstate to use the Spartan.
“It's a hell of a way to run a railroad,” Malanaphy said.
The C&O, while continuing pursuit of complete abandonment of its carferry operations, currently is operating only one of its three carferries, the City of Midland.
The Spartan was put back in mothballs Wednesday after the agreement to haul freight for the Ann Arbor Railroad fell through.

From a AA Bulletin Order
Effective 12:01 A. M. June 15, 1979 Track is jointly used by the C&O Railroad and Ann Arbor Railroad between west yard limit board Clare (MP 180.1 and the Hub Track Switch, Mt. Pleasant (MP 163.89) Ann Arbor Timetable and Rules govern.
Although the C&O had been part of the Chessie System since February 26, 1973 and the former Ann Arbor Railroad was operated by Michigan Interstate Railway. This bulletin Order made Michigan Railroad history.
That same day, Chessie System Local K-14 took to the Ann Arbor rails to make the trip to Mt. Pleasant

The Benzie County Record-Patriot Dec. 26, 1979
one of the sadder events of the seventies was the day in June, 1974 when the City of Green Bay carferry was towed from the Elberta harbor en route to Spain to be used for scrap. The car ferries and the Ann Arbor Railroad has been a center of controversy and change throughout the decade. Presently, Michigan Interstate Railway runs the operation. There currently are two carferries running out of Elberta - the Viking and the City of Milwaukee, the later being brought into action from downstate a year ago. Engine repair on the Arthur K. Atkinson, which has laid dormant most of the decade, has begun and may be completed in the next three months.