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The State of Wisconsin is asking the Interstate Commerce Commis-— sion to restore full railroad carferry service by the Chesa- peake & Ohio between Ludington and Milwaukee. The present re- duced carferry service, Wiscon- sin claims, forced about two- thirds of the normal traffic to go through Chicago, taking twice as much time. The state esti- mates that the carferries handle 200,000 cars yearly and the de- lay could hamper Wisconsin ind- ustry in its competition in eas- tern markets. Heavy ice onthe St. Lawrence has forced a delay in opening of the Seaway, originally scheduled for April 1. Harold Stirton reports the Grand Trunk has eliminated passenger service on the Milwaukee-Muskeg- on run as of the end of last November. MADISON is their only boat now in operation. The oth- ers are tied up at Muskegon. He adds that C&O have only the PERE MARQUETTE 21, CITY OF MIDLAND and BADGER in operation (as of the lead ae with the others tied up at dington except for CITY OF Skormau: still at Mani- towoc where she suffered fire damage in drydock. C&O and the shipyard are both blaming each other. Expansion at Conneaut, O., will add space for storage of three million tons of iron ore and limestone and provide facilities needed to discharge the ROGER BLOUGH slated for June delivery. The St. Lawrence Seaway had its most successful season in 1971, passing the 50-million-ton mark for the second consecutive year. Bulk cargo through the Montreal- Lake Ontario section amounted to 44.3 million tons and general cargo amounted to 8.6 million Lo G Ce eee for a total of 52.9 million, an increase of 3.4 percent over the previous year. Best of all, gen- eral cargo increased 31.1 per cent while bulk dropped only six-tenths of one percent. The boost in high revenue cargo re- sulted in a 7.2 percent increase in toll revenue which enabled a redemption of $3.9 million in revenue bonds. Testing for means to lengthen the navigation season on the Lakes included some interesting experiments this winter. Includ- ed was an air bubbler installed on the Coast Guard's RARITAN, which sent bubbles up along the hull to "grease" the hull with air, plus a system to spray wat- er on the hull to lubricate it above the waterline. The idea is to make the hull slip through ice with less power and more speed and less fuel. A system to use propane gas explosions under the ice and blast it upwards was undertaken at Muskegon. WOODBINE tried out a navigation system to follow an electric cable on the bottom with accuracy of a couple of yards in zero visibility ina narrow channel. Finally a bubble system retarded ice formation in part of the St. Mary's River. Reports are that U.S. Steel will fit_out 32 ships (Blough ready in July?); Bradley, eight ships (White in July); Kinsman, 16 fitting out; Clifts, all includ- ing former Republic boats and RAYMOND REISS; Columbia, all but ASHLAND, DAVIDSON, WYANDOTTE, HURON and MILLER; BoCo, all; Wilson, five fitting out; Reiss, four, not Pee REISS; Pickands— Mather, eight (except WATSON, HOBSON, DALTON, MATHER and PICK~ ANDS); Bethlehem, all plus CORT, "when ready"; Inland Steel, ails Hal Jackson w