The 31 miles of the former Boston & Maine's west end between Hoosac Tunnel and East Deerfield Yard are completely devoid of any online traffic sources, and the route is not cleared for double-stack traffic. With those factors in mind, it will be interesting to see how this line fares with the spinoff of the route to Genesee & Wyoming. An increasing number of trains are being routed from here onto CSX's B&A line to the south. The line follows the Deerfield River for many of those 31 miles, but the mountains in the background eventually become too big a barrier to avoid, necessitating the expensive-to-maintain 4.75-mile-long Hoosac Tunnel. One benefit is that the old B&M route to the Albany area crosses the Berkshires 600 feet lower than the B&A line.
