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CRTS Update #03-68
Monday, March 13th, 2000 at 18:40 EST
ORBCOMM and GE Harris Railway Electronics to Provide Satellite
Communications Service to Fleet of CSX Locomotives
DULLES, Va., March 13th, 2000 -- ORBCOMM Global, L.P. (ORBCOMM), the
first commercial provider of global low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite data
communication services, today announced that CSX Transportation Inc.
(CSXT) is
planning to equip approximately 2,800 locomotives with the PINPOINT(TM)
Locomotive Tracking System offered by GE Harris Railway Electronics,
L.L.C.
(GE Harris). ORBCOMM is the satellite communications provider for the
PINPOINT system. CSXT is already using the PINPOINT system to track a
portion
of its locomotive fleet and plans to install the system on the remainder
of
its fleet by mid-year.
Following an extensive search of tracking systems last year, CSXT
selected
the GE Harris PINPOINT system to improve locomotive utilization and
decrease
operating costs. CSXT found that using the PINPOINT system with
ORBCOMM's Web-
based satellite communication services resulted in a significant
increase in
locomotive utilization and miles traveled per locomotive. The PINPOINT
system
enables railroads to determine each locomotive's position within
approximately
100 meters. The PINPOINT system also provides fuel-level status and
several
other on-board data reporting features critical to locomotive
operations.
"We are excited by the potential savings that we expect to achieve
as a
result of the project," said Michael Erenberg, AVP Locomotive Operations
of
CSXT. "PINPOINT gave us the ability to improve productivity by knowing
when
our locomotives were inactive or misused and by giving us real-time
information to make real-time decisions in an industry that requires
quick
decision making."
"We are excited about the launch of the PINPOINT system with CSXT,
and are
pleased with the level of integration and support we have received from
ORBCOMM," said Greg Herrema, President and CEO of GE Harris Railway
Electronics.
"ORBCOMM is pleased to be working with GE Harris to provide
innovative
solutions to the railway industry," said Scott L. Webster, Chairman and
Chief
Executive Officer of ORBCOMM. "CSXT has demonstrated its industry
leadership
as the first U.S. railroad to deploy this exciting technology. The
PINPOINT
Locomotive Tracking system, together with ORBCOMM's satellite
communication
services, provides CSXT with access to critical data that can
substantially
improve operational performance and fleet utilization, resulting in
significant cost savings."
CRTS Update #02-97
Friday, February 18th, 2000 at 21:00 EST
Darby mayor blocks tracks again
After a CSX train parked in town, she parked her Dodge on the rails.
It was her second such protest this week.
By Deborah Bolling
DARBY BOROUGH - Mayor Paula M. Brown again parked her car on the tracks
yesterday afternoon, removing it only after a federal judge issued an
injunction threatening to jail her.
Brown parked her rusty green 1980 Dodge Diplomat, disrupting service for
two hours, in protest against CSX Corp., which which runs freight trains
through Darby Borough and Yeadon on a route between Florida and Maine.
Earlier in the day, a CSX freight train stopped in downtown Darby at
Sixth and Main Streets for more than an hour, blocking all vehicular
traffic and Brown said, presenting a danger to the community.
The incident occurred after 3 p.m., as children were leaving three area
schools. Brown said that more than 150 children who were trying to get
home climbed over and under the stopped train.
Brown said the entire Darby Police Department had to patrol the length
of the track to ensure the children's safety.
"You never know when the train will start and one of these kids will get
killed," said Brown. "We are blocking the tracks until CSX rectifies the
situation."
In response to Brown's action, CSX spokesman Bob Sullivan apologized
that the train had blocked the crossings, but he accused Brown of
"endangering public safety.
"The mayor has taken an action which is rash and which endangers the
welfare of not only its residents and our employees," he said.
Yesterday's incident comes amid growing tension between CSX and
officials in Darby and Yeadon because of derailments in the area. Brown
said there have been six derailments so far this month, the last
occurring late Wednesday.
Officials from CSX said this week that there have only been three.
On Sunday, after a CSX trail derailed near an apartment complex, Brown
parked her car on the same tracks for the first time, and then replaced
it with a borough police car, delaying efforts to remove the derailed
freight and shutting down the line for about 12 hours.
In yesterday's incident, Brown again blocked the tracks after CSX
freight train finally moved. She said she was hoping to prevent another
train from passing through.
The mayor was flanked by several members of the community angry with
CSX.
"My son hopped on one of these stopped trains last year and was badly
hurt when he jumped off after it started moving again," said Carla
Stevenson, a resident. "But this kind of thing happens every day."
Borough Solicitor Fincourt B. Shelton served the mayor the injunction,
which was requested by CSX. Shelton negotiated with CSX on Sunday.
Yesterday, he participated in a hearing from the site of the blockade by
cellular phone with U.S. District Court Judge Jan E. DuBois.
DuBois said he understood Brown's position, but warned that it was
illegal.
Shelton said that although he was an officer of the court, he regretted
having to serve the mayor the injunction.
"The judge agreed that it was dangerous, but said we have to move," said
Shelton. "So I will have to serve her, even though I don't like what I
am doing."
Shelton served the injunction at 6:35 p.m., and Brown moved her car 15
minutes later.
"I'm going to move my car on the sole condition that somebody listens to
us," said Brown. "I'm only doing this because I need to stay here and I
can't lose time by going to jail."
CRTS Update #12-06
Wednesday, December 2nd, 1999 at 16:30 EST
OPERATING PLAN CHANGE PROPOSAL
CSX INTERMODAL APL/PLACER NORTHERN PLAN (CHICAGO-EAST)
CSXI HAS SIGNED A CONTRACT WITH APL/PACER, INC. TO HANDLE AMERICAN
PRESIDENT LINES (APL) RAIL TRAFFIC THAT IS CURRENTLY BEING HANDLED OVER
NORFOLK SOUTHERN. UNDER THIS CONTRACT, CSXI EXPECTS TO ADD OVER 254,000
ADDITIONAL LOADS IN 2000 AND WILL HANDLE OVER 95% OF THEIR
TRANSCONTINENTAL BUSINESS EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER IN AN 'ALL OR
NOTHING' LONG TERM CONTRACT. THIS VOLUME IS A SIGNIFICANT PORTION OF
THE EXPECTED **21%** INCREASE IN INTERMODAL VOLUME IN 2000 VS. 1999
(NORMALIZED).
TERMINAL IMPACTS WILL BE SIGNIFICANT, THE FOLLOWING TERMINALS WILL SEE
A GREATER THAN 15% INCREASE OVER CURRENT LEVELS:
ATLANTA 43%
BALTIMORE 21%
BUFFALO 103%
CHARLOTTE 110%
PORTSMOUTH 37%
PHILADELPHIA 21%
TO ACCOMODATE THIS SIGNFICANT INCREASE IN VOLUMES REQUIRES MAJOR
CHANGES IN THE INTERMODAL NETWORK. THIS PROPOSAL COVERS TRAIN CHANGES
FOR THE 'NORTHERN' PORTION OF THE CSXT NETWORK (CHICAGO-EAST) WHILE A
SECOND PROPOSAL WILL BE RELEASED WHICH COVERS CHANGES ASSOCIATED WITH
TRAFFIC MOVING THROUGH THE MEMPHIS AND NEW ORLEANS GATEWAYS.
CSX INTERMODAL EXPECTS TO SEE THE FIRST SEGMENT OF NEW BUSINESS MOVING
THROUGH THE GATEWAYS THE FIRST WEEK IN DECEMBER.
MAJOR ADJUSTMENTS CHICAGO-EAST INCLUDE:
A. EXTEND Q130/Q139 TO OPERATE CHICAGO-PORTSMOUTH
B. Q130/Q133 WILL BECOME PURE CHICAGO-BALTIMORE TRAINS
C. ***NEW*** Q152 TO OPERATE CHICAGO-KEARNY 3 DAYS/WEEK ON A MANAULLY
AUTHORIZED BASIS
D. ***NEW*** Q140/Q143 TO OPERATE ONE DAY/WEEK BETWEEN CHICAGO AND
CINCINNATI TO HANDLE TOYOTA-GEORGETOWN, KY CONTAINERS
E. ***NEW*** Q190/Q191 TO OPERATE BETWEEN KEARNY AND
PHILADELPHIA-GREENWICH WITH CONNECTIONS FROM/TO Q156/Q157
CRTS Update #11-30
Wednesday, November 10th, 1999 at 21:30 EST
SELKIRK, NY OPERATING SCHEDULE:
Time Train Symbol Frequency Conrail Symbol
01:00 Q-418 Daily CASE
02:30 Q-254 Daily ML-488
03:00 Q-160 Daily TV-8
03:30 Q-161 Daily TV-77
03:30 Q-186 Wednesday through Sunday TV-186
03:45 Q-150 Daily TV-10B
03:50 Q-403 As Required SENS
04:00 Q-108 Wednesday through Friday Mail-46
04:00 Q-174 Daily TV-174
04:10 Q-164 Daily TV-304
04:15 Q-115 Tuesday through Sunday TV-5
04:35 L-108 Saturday through Monday Mail-46
04:45 Q-159 Monday through Thursday TV-307
04:45 L-159 Friday and Saturday TV-307
04:45 Q-264 Daily ML-482
05:00 Q-420 Daily SEBO
05:00 Q-439 Daily SEBU
05:30 Q-117 Tuesday through Sunday TV-7
05:40 Q-157 Tuesday through Friday TV-301
05:45 Q-110 Wednesday through Friday and Sunday TV-100
05:45 L-110 Saturday only TV-102
05:45 Q-168 Wednesday through Friday Mail-8S
05:45 Q-185 Tuesday through Sunday TV-185
05:45 Q-290 Daily ML-430
06:00 Q-232 As Required BUSE
06:10 Q-109 Tuesday through Saturday TV-99
06:30 Q-118 Monday through Friday Mail-10
06:30 Q-380 Daily IHSE
07:00 Q-116 Wednesday through Monday TV-6
07:00 Q-165 Daily TV-261
07:00 L-409 Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday SETA
07:30 Q-271 Daily ML-401
07:30 Q-433 Daily SEOI
08:30 Q-113 Tuesday through Saturday TV-13
08:30 Q-422 Daily SEPW
09:00 Q-409 Daily SETA
09:15 Q-273 Daily ML-407
10:00 Q-417 Daily SECA
10:30 Q-390 Daily NPSE
10:30 Q-430 Daily OPSE
10:45 Q-158 Friday only TV-90
10:45 Q-170 Friday only TV-80W
11:00 Q-387 Daily SEBB
11:00 Q-620 Daily CNSE
11:15 Q-421 Daily BOSE
11:20 Q-119 Tuesday through Friday TV-9
11:20 L-119 Saturday only TV-9
11:30 Q-436 Daily SEFR
12:01 L-158 Sunday only TV-90
12:05 Q-169 Tuesday through Friday TVBN
12:05 L-169 Saturday only TVBN
12:45 Q-111 Tuesday through Sunday Mail-5
13:00 Q-426 Daily SENE
14:30 Q-628 Daily NFSE
16:00 Q-263 Daily TOMT
16:00 Q-424 Daily SPSE
16:45 Q-432 Daily SABU
17:30 Q-621 Daily SECN
17:45 Q-389 Daily SEBR
18:30 Q-364 Daily INSE
18:45 Q-277 Daily ML-433
18:45 Q-279 Daily new train
18:45 Q-410 Daily RYSE
19:00 Q-629 Daily SENF
20:00 Q-156 Daily TV-302
20:00 Q-404 Daily OISE
20:00 Q-437 Daily PWSE
20:15 Q-386 Daily CWSE
20:15 Q-423 Daily FRSE
20:30 Q-112 Tuesday through Thursday, Saturday and Sunday TV-24
20:30 Q-429 Daily SESP
21:30 Q-265 Daily LMSE
21:30 Q-402 As Required NSSE
21:55 Q-268 Daily ML-268
22:00 Q-367 Monday through Saturday SEIN
22:00 Q-427 Daily NESE
22:15 Q-114 Daily TV-14
22:15 Q-235 As Required LMSE
22:30 Q-431 Sunday through Thursday SELI
22:40 Q-162 Daily TV-18
23:00 L-112 Friday only TV-24
23:00 Q-374 Daily NLSE
23:00 Q-385 Daily SEBU
23:00 Q-425 Daily LASE
23:00 Q-428 Daily SELA
Information courtesy of: Ben Kron
Saturday, October 23rd, 1999 at 13:20 EDT
SD70MAC 13/15 units
739 from 4144 06/23/99 renumbered in error - re-renumbered 789
775 from 4130 07/12/99
776 from 4131 08/13/99
777 from 4132 09/23/99
778 from 4133 10/07/99
779 from 4134 07/09/99
780 from 4135 07/19/99
781 from 4136 08/31/99
783 from 4138 08/12/99
785 from 4140 08/16/99
786 from 4141 08/10/99
787 from 4142 08/27/99
788 from 4143 08/27/99
789 no details
SD80MAC 13/13 units renumbering complete
800 from 4100 08/05/99
801 from 4104 07/20/99 CSXT Paint
802 from 4107 07/19/99
803 from 4108 07/23/99
804 from 4110 07/15/99
805 from 4112 06/23/99
806 from 4113 09/08/99
807 from 4116 07/30/99
808 from 4121 07/07/99
809 from 4122 08/09/99
810 from 4124 08/26/99
811 from 4125 07/20/99
812 from 4128 08/31/99
MT-4 1/2 units
1005 from 1018 07/12/99
MT-6 7/13 units
1010 no details
1012 no details
1014 from 1116 08/13/99
1015 from 1118 06/29/99
1016 no details
1017 from 1127 09/23/99
1018 no details
SW1500 23/32 units
1070 from 9511 09/28/99
1071 from 9518 09/09/99
1072 from 9526 08/09/99
1073 from 9529 08/16/99
1074 from 9533 06/29/99
1075 from 9537 07/28/99
1076 from 9541 06/29/99
1077 from 9544 08/06/99
1078 from 9545 07/14/99
1081 no details
1082 from 9559 08/12/99
1083 from 9561 08/12/99
1084 from 9563 08/23/99
1086 from 9570 08/19/99
1089 from 9583 08/16/99
1090 from 9584 07/22/99
1091 from 9585 07/28/99
1092 from 9593 06/23/99
1094 from 9597 08/04/99
1095 from 9599 09/23/99
1097 from 9610 10/11/99
1098 from 9613 08/20/99
1129 from 9504 08/06/99
SW1001 8/9 units
1120 from 9401 10/04/99
1121 no details
1122 no details
1123 no details
1124 no details
1125 no details
1126 no details
1127 no details
GP15-1 25/42 units
1525 from 1600 09/07/99
1532 no details
1533 from 1611 08/09/99
1534 from 1616 09/10/99
1535 from 1617 08/16/99
1536 from 1618 08/16/99
1537 no details
1538 from 1622 08/30/99
1539 from 1628 06/23/99
1541 from 1630 07/16/99
1542 from 1631 08/02/99
1546 from 1639 07/26/99
1549 from 1645 10/14/99
1552 from 1655 08/12/99
1553 no details
1554 no details
1555 no details
1556 from 1664 08/24/99
1558 from 1669 09/17/99
1560 from 1673 07/22/99
1561 from 1675 08/11/99
1562 from 1678 07/20/99
1563 from 1683 08/03/99
1564 from 1686 08/13/99
1566 from 1690 09/07/99
GP38 48/57 units
1943 no details
1944 from 7670 10/11/99
1945 from 7671 09/13/99
1946 from 7672 09/17/99
1947 from 7673 08/24/99
1948 from 7674 08/06/99
1949 from 7677 09/22/99
1950 from 7678 08/10/99
1951 from 7680 08/02/99
1952 from 7682 08/09/99
1953 no details
1954 no details
1955 no details
1956 from 7688 08/19/99
1957 from 7689 08/23/99
1958 from 7690 10/04/99
1959 from 7713 08/16/99
1960 from 7715 08/30/99
1961 no details
1962 from 7718 10/07/99
1963 from 7719 07/07/99
1967 from 7729 10/11/99
1968 no details
1969 from 7735 09/22/99
1973 no details
1974 from 7875 09/28/99
1975 no details
1976 from 7885 08/17/99
1977 from 7892 10/04/99
1980 from 7905 09/13/99
1981 from 7907 08/24/99
1982 from 7912 07/29/99
1983 from 7915 09/02/99
1984 from 7919 08/18/99
1985 from 7920 08/11/99
1986 from 7921 08/23/99
1987 from 7922 09/13/99
1988 from 7923 10/04/99
1989 from 7925 10/05/99
1990 from 7926 09/07/99
1991 from 7927 08/09/99
1992 no details
1993 from 7931 08/26/99
1995 from 7933 09/28/99
1996 from 7935 09/17/99
1997 no details
1998 from 7938 08/13/99
1999 no details
SD38 8/14 units
2455 no details
2460 from 6940 08/30/99
2461 from 6942 06/29/99
2463 from 6948 09/23/99
2464 from 6953 07/12/99
2465 no details
2466 from 6957 08/13/99
2467 no details
GP38-2 79/98 units
2717 no details
2718 from 8045 08/10/99
2719 from 8050 10/04/99
2720 from 8051 08/10/99
2721 from 8053 09/09/99
2722 from 8055 07/28/99
2725 from 8065 09/21/99
2726 from 8068 08/09/99
2727 from 8072 08/06/99
2728 from 8074 07/21/99
2729 from 8075 08/16/99
2730 from 8076 10/15/99
2731 from 8082 08/30/99
2732 from 8087 07/13/99
2733 no details
2736 from 8095 09/24/99
2737 from 8098 08/30/99
2738 from 8103 09/17/99
2739 no details
2741 from 8108 08/18/99
2742 from 8109 07/29/99
2744 from 8115 07/01/99
2748 from 8130 09/20/99
2751 from 8137 06/23/99
2752 from 8140 07/28/99
2753 from 8144 09/01/99
2754 from 8145 09/20/99
2755 from 8146 06/23/99
2757 from 8150 09/13/99
2759 from 8162 08/30/99
2760 from 8163 08/24/99
2761 from 8164 08/30/99
2762 from 8169 09/17/99
2763 from 8174 08/02/99
2765 no details
2766 from 8177 08/16/99
2767 from 8178 09/10/99
2768 from 8179 10/07/99
2769 from 8183 07/20/99
2771 from 8189 06/18/99
2772 from 8190 10/05/90
2774 from 8195 08/16/99
2775 from 8197 07/22/99
2777 from 8199 07/16/99
2778 from 8200 08/09/99
2779 from 8201 09/28/99
2780 from 8204 07/20/99
2781 from 8205 09/17/99
2782 from 8206 08/13/99
2783 from 8210 10/05/99
2784 from 8215 08/05/99
2785 from 8216 07/12/99
2786 from 8217 10/07/99
2787 from 8218 08/16/99
2788 from 8219 10/07/99
2789 from 8220 08/19/99
2790 from 8222 10/04/99
2792 from 8225 08/23/99
2793 from 8226 08/30/99
2794 from 8228 07/29/99
2795 from 8234 07/26/99
2796 from 8236 07/30/99
2797 from 8237 07/29/99
2799 from 8241 08/27/99
2800 from 8246 07/20/99
2801 from 8249 10/05/99
2802 from 8250 08/17/99
2803 from 8251 09/13/99
2804 from 8260 08/23/99
2805 from 8261 06/24/99
2806 from 8265 07/13/99
2807 from 8266 06/30/99
2808 from 8268 07/07/99
2809 from 8273 07/07/99
2810 from 8274 07/07/99
2811 from 8275 09/17/99
2812 from 8278 08/23/99
2813 from 8279 06/29/99
B23-7 37/42 units
3145 from 1916 07/07/99
3146 from 1919 07/27/99
3147 from 1920 06/23/99
3148 from 1922 06/24/99
3149 from 1923 07/26/99
3150 from 1925 08/31/99
3151 from 1926 06/23/99
3152 from 1931 07/15/99
3154 from 1936 06/29/99
3155 from 1937 07/08/99
3156 from 1938 10/04/99
3157 from 1939 08/02/99
3158 from 1940 08/03/99
3159 from 1943 08/09/99
3160 no details
3161 from 1954 09/07/99
3163 from 1957 08/30/99
3165 from 1964 09/17/99
3167 from 1992 09/13/99
3168 from 1994 07/14/99
3169 from 1995 08/30/99
3170 from 1996 08/17/99
3171 from 1999 06/18/99
3172 from 2001 07/19/99
3173 from 2006 07/14/99
3174 from 2007 06/15/99
3175 from 2014 08/23/99
3176 from 2017 07/19/99
3177 from 2019 06/29/99
3178 from 2021 07/07/99
3179 from 2023 07/02/99
3180 from 2801 07/12/99
3181 from 2802 07/02/99
3182 from 2806 07/30/99
3183 from 2813 08/11/99
3184 from 2816 08/23/99
3189 from 1980 09/20/99
B23-7 Super 7 4/4 units renumbering complete
3185 from 2030 07/15/99
3186 no details
3187 from 2036 08/20/99
3188 from 2039 08/09/99
GP40-2 46/53 units
4401 from 3277 09/17/99
4402 from 3284 09/17/99
4403 from 3286 07/26/99
4404 no details
4405 from 3293 07/27/99
4406 from 3295 07/28/99
4408 from 3297 07/20/99
4409 from 3299 07/21/99
4410 from 3301 ?
4411 no details
4412 from 3306 10/12/99
4413 from 3308 06/24/99
4415 from 3314 07/26/99
4416 from 3318 07/13/99
4417 from 3320 06/23/99
4418 from 3321 08/16/99
4420 from 3325 08/16/99
4421 from 3331 10/04/99
4422 from 3336 10/04/99
4424 from 3339 09/28/99
4425 from 3340 09/13/99
4426 from 3342 09/29/99
4427 from 3343 09/17/99
4428 from 3345 09/21/99
4429 from 3346 08/27/99
4430 from 3354 08/27/99
4431 from 3356 07/19/99
4432 from 3357 07/30/99
4433 from 3358 06/23/99
4434 from 3359 06/24/99
4435 from 3361 07/20/99
4436 from 3363 07/22/99
4437 from 3365 08/09/99
4438 from 3366 07/15/99
4439 from 3368 10/05/99
4440 from 3369 10/11/99
4441 from 3373 08/17/99
4443 from 3375 06/23/99
4444 from 3379 10/05/99
4445 from 3380 08/11/99
4446 no details
4447 from 3390 10/14/99
4449 from 3393 10/07/99
4450 from 3396 08/20/99
4451 from 3398 08/16/99
4452 from 3403 08/06/99
B36-7 18/23 units
5783 from 5001 09/01/99
5784 from 5002 09/21/99
5787 from 5009 07/26/99
5788 from 5011 08/13/99
5789 from 5013 07/07/99
5790 from 5015 09/13/99
5791 from 5018 09/28/99
5793 from 5024 09/02/99
5794 from 5025 08/18/99
5795 from 5029 10/15/99
5797 from 5033 09/13/99
5798 from 5034 07/15/99
5799 from 5038 09/17/99
5800 from 5041 08/30/99
5802 from 5046 08/02/99
5803 from 5049 08/18/99
5804 from 5050 07/23/99
5805 from 5052 07/02/99
B40-8 11/12 units
5950 from 5060 08/02/99
5951 from 5061 06/29/99
5952 from 5062 09/20/99
5953 from 5065 09/01/99
5954 no details
5955 from 5071 07/12/99
5956 from 5074 10/11/99
5958 from 5076 10/04/99
5959 from 5080 07/20/99
5960 from 5086 08/12/99
5961 from 5087 06/23/99
C30-7A 19/21 units
7095 from 6551 06/29/99
7097 from 6558 08/20/99
7098 from 6560 06/15/99
7099 from 6564 06/18/99
7100 from 6565 08/20/99
7101 no details
7102 from 6571 06/23/99
7103 from 6572 07/26/99
7105 from 6575 09/07/99
7106 from 6576 08/11/99
7107 from 6577 07/07/99
7108 from 6578 06/25/99
7109 from 6579 07/09/99
7110 from 6581 09/13/99
7111 from 6583 10/04/99
7112 from 6586 08/02/99
7113 from 6587 09/02/99
7114 from 6588 06/25/99
7115 from 6594 09/01/99
C36-7 11/11 units renumbering complete
7116 from 6622 06/23/99
7117 from 6626 06/18/99
7118 from 6628 10/04/99
7119 from 6629 08/17/99
7120 from 6630 08/06/99
7121 from 6633 09/13/99
7122 from 6634 10/04/99
7123 from 6635 07/12/99
7124 from 6638 08/06/99
7125 from 6640 07/12/99
7126 from 6642 07/27/99
C40-8W 86/98 units
7300 from 6050 08/11/99
7301 from 6052 08/20/99
7302 from 6054 07/15/99
7303 from 6055 07/19/99
7304 from 6059 10/11/99
7305 from 6063 08/13/99
7306 from 6066 09/23/99
7307 from 6067 08/30/99
7308 from 6072 09/07/99
7309 from 6075 08/02/99
7310 no details
7312 no details
7313 from 6084 06/23/99
7314 from 6085 08/13/99
7316 from 6089 08/16/99
7317 from 6090 09/03/99
7318 from 6093 07/30/99
7319 from 6095 07/15/99
7320 from 6100 07/26/99
7321 from 6104 07/28/99
7322 no details
7324 from 6115 08/13/99
7326 from 6119 08/04/99
7328 from 6122 06/18/99 CSXT Paint
7329 from 6126 09/13/99
7330 from 6128 08/02/99
7331 from 6129 08/04/99
7332 from 6132 06/23/99 CSXT Paint
7333 from 6134 07/22/99
7334 from 6138 09/07/99
7335 from 6139 07/26/99
7336 from 6142 06/24/99
7337 from 6143 10/12/99
7338 from 6146 07/30/99
7339 from 6147 06/24/99 CSXT Paint
7340 from 6148 08/19/99
7341 from 6151 08/31/99
7342 from 6154 06/29/99
7343 from 6156 08/06/99
7344 from 6161 08/11/99 CSXT Paint
7345 from 6162 07/29/99
7346 from 6163 09/22/99
7347 from 6164 06/18/99 CSXT Paint
7348 from 6167 07/22/99
7349 from 6169 08/23/99
7350 from 6172 08/16/99
7351 from 6177 09/09/99
7352 from 6179 07/12/99 CSXT Paint
7353 from 6181 08/06/99
7354 from 6183 08/19/99
7355 from 6186 08/02/99
7356 from 6190 06/23/99
7357 from 6192 08/02/99
7358 from 6193 10/14/99
7359 from 6194 08/03/99
7360 from 6198 08/20/99
7361 from 6201 07/26/99
7362 from 6203 07/12/99
7363 from 6204 08/12/99
7365 from 6208 07/22/99
7366 from 6213 08/02/99
7367 from 6215 08/02/99
7368 from 6217 09/28/99
7369 from 6219 08/23/99
7370 from 6223 07/16/99
7371 from 6224 06/29/99
7372 from 6227 08/09/99
7373 from 6229 09/28/99
7374 from 6232 08/11/99
7375 from 6233 07/07/99
7376 from 6238 07/16/99
7378 from 6242 07/28/99
7379 from 6244 08/20/99
7380 from 6246 08/18/99
7381 from 6247 07/22/99
7382 from 6249 07/21/99
7384 from 6255 08/03/99
7385 from 6258 09/03/99
7387 from 6263 09/24/99
7388 from 6265 08/13/99
7390 from 6270 08/05/99
7391 from 6272 08/30/99
7393 from 6277 06/23/99
7394 from 6280 06/29/99
7395 from 6282 07/12/99
7396 from 6284 06/23/99
C32-8 3/4 units
7476 from 6610 09/03/99
7477 from 6612 06/23/99
7479 from 6618 07/20/99
C39-8 9/9 units renumbering complete
7480 from 6001 09/02/99
7481 from 6002 07/13/99
7482 from 6005 07/20/99
7483 from 6008 09/09/99
7484 from 6009 08/27/99
7485 from 6013 09/28/99
7486 from 6018 08/05/99
7487 from 6019 09/23/99
7488 from 6020 07/07/99
C40-8 10/11 units
7489 from 6025 07/13/99
7490 from 6033 07/13/99
7491 from 6036 08/16/99
7492 no details
7493 from 6038 08/03/99
7494 from 6039 07/21/99
7495 from 6040 08/04/99
7496 from 6042 07/19/99
7497 from 6044 08/06/99
7498 from 6049 08/02/99
SD50 53/57 units
8499 from 6701 08/03/99
8644 from 6703 08/12/99
8645 from 6704 08/09/99
8646 from 6705 07/20/99
8647 from 6709 07/12/99
8648 from 6711 07/21/99
8649 from 6718 07/19/99
8650 from 6719 07/12/99
8652 no details
8653 from 6726 07/23/99
8654 from 6728 08/16/99
8655 from 6731 07/19/99
8656 from 6732 09/13/99
8657 from 6736 09/07/99
8658 from 6738 08/23/99
8659 from 6739 09/07/99
8660 from 6740 10/05/99
8661 from 6741 07/13/99
8662 from 6744 07/13/99
8663 from 6746 08/16/99
8664 from 6747 06/25/99
8665 from 6751 07/29/99
8666 from 6756 07/20/99
8667 from 6757 08/16/99
8668 from 6758 06/15/99
8669 from 6759 09/17/99
8670 from 6760 08/20/99
8671 from 6763 07/19/99
8672 from 6764 09/23/99
8674 from 6768 07/22/99
8675 from 6771 07/08/99
8677 from 6781 06/30/99
8678 from 6784 08/31/99
8679 from 6786 09/17/99
8680 from 6788 08/17/99
8681 from 6790 07/22/99
8682 from 6791 08/27/99
8683 from 6795 08/24/99
8684 from 6800 08/03/99
8685 from 6801 08/16/99
8686 from 6803 09/23/99
8687 from 6806 08/27/99
8688 from 6807 10/07/99
8689 from 6813 08/12/99
8690 from 6814 07/14/99
8691 from 6815 09/07/99
8692 from 6816 08/11/99
8693 from 6818 10/07/99
8694 from 6819 09/24/99
8695 from 6823 08/09/99
8696 from 6825 08/24/99
8697 from 6826 08/12/99
8699 from 6834 07/13/99
SD60 11/12 units
8710 from 6841 09/28/99
8711 from 6842 07/26/99
8712 from 6844 09/22/99
8713 from 6847 08/16/99
8714 from 6850 07/21/99
8715 from 6851 06/23/99
8716 from 6856 07/30/99
8717 from 6860 08/12/99
8718 from 6863 08/09/99
8719 from 6864 08/09/99
8720 from 6865 07/01/99
SD60I 34/34 units renumbering complete
8722 from 5575 08/02/99
8723 from 5576 08/27/99
8724 from 5579 09/17/99
8725 from 5583 08/18/99
8726 from 5585 09/07/99
8727 from 5588 08/04/99
8728 from 5589 08/27/99
8729 from 5591 08/27/99
8730 from 5594 09/22/99
8731 from 5597 09/29/99
8732 from 5599 09/10/99
8733 from 5601 09/07/99
8734 from 5604 08/02/99
8735 from 5609 09/17/99
8736 no details
8737 from 5614 07/13/99
8738 from 5615 08/17/99
8739 from 5616 07/22/99
8740 from 5619 07/09/99
8741 from 5627 10/04/99
8742 from 5628 08/05/99 CSXT Paint
8743 from 5630 07/12/99
8744 from 5631 07/15/99
8745 from 5633 07/16/99
8746 from 5634 08/18/99
8747 from 5635 06/23/99
8748 from 5637 09/13/99
8749 from 5639 07/28/99
8750 from 5642 08/24/99
8751 from 5645 07/22/99
8752 from 5647 07/28/99
8753 from 5649 08/02/99
8754 from 5652 07/22/99
8755 from 5654 10/11/99
SD60M 30/31 units
8756 from 5500 08/06/99
8757 from 5502 08/03/99
8758 from 5505 07/16/99
8759 from 5508 06/28/99 CSXT Paint
8760 from 5509 10/04/99
8761 no details
8762 from 5514 06/23/99 CSXT Paint
8763 from 5516 07/22/99 CSXT Paint
8764 from 5518 08/27/99
8765 from 5521 08/23/99
8766 from 5524 10/07/99
8767 from 5525 06/11/99 CSXT Paint
8768 from 5528 06/18/99 CSXT Paint
8769 from 5534 06/18/99 CSXT Paint
8770 from 5535 07/16/99
8771 from 5536 09/09/99
8772 from 5540 09/07/99
8773 from 5543 09/10/99
8774 from 5544 08/27/99
8775 from 5545 06/23/99
8776 from 5547 09/17/99
8777 from 5549 07/28/99
8778 from 5551 09/28/99
8779 from 5555 08/16/99
8781 from 5561 08/31/99
8782 from 5562 07/16/99
8783 from 5566 08/03/99
8784 from 5567 09/13/99
8785 from 5569 07/26/99
8786 from 5573 10/08/99
SD40-2 83/90 units
8801 from 6370 08/26/99
8802 from 6372 08/04/99
8803 from 6373 07/20/99
8804 from 6375 08/06/99
8806 from 6378 07/20/99
8807 from 6379 09/07/99
8808 from 6382 08/23/99
8809 from 6383 09/23/99
8810 from 6386 08/05/99
8811 from 6388 06/29/99
8812 from 6391 07/12/99
8813 from 6392 08/02/99
8814 from 6393 10/11/99
8815 from 6396 08/09/99
8817 from 6401 07/13/99
8818 from 6402 07/22/99
8819 from 6405 08/23/99
8820 from 6408 09/23/99
8821 from 6411 08/17/99
8822 from 6413 08/19/99
8823 from 6420 07/20/99
8824 from 6425 07/28/99
8825 from 6426 07/29/99
8826 no details
8827 from 6430 07/19/99
8828 from 6431 08/16/99
8829 from 6433 07/21/99
8830 from 6435 08/10/99
8831 from 6439 08/09/99
8832 from 6440 10/04/99
8833 from 6442 08/31/99
8834 from 6443 07/23/99
8835 from 6452 08/09/99
8836 from 6460 09/28/99
8837 from 6461 07/21/99
8838 from 6462 08/16/99
8839 from 6463 07/23/99
8840 from 6465 08/23/99
8841 no details
8842 from 6473 08/16/99
8843 from 6477 10/12/99
8844 from 6480 08/13/99
8845 from 6481 09/13/99
8846 from 6482 10/07/99
8847 from 6484 09/23/99
8848 from 6485 07/07/99
8849 no details
8850 from 6490 08/27/99
8851 from 6492 08/13/99
8853 from 6494 08/12/99
8854 from 6496 08/02/99
8855 from 6497 07/26/99
8856 from 6498 08/06/99
8857 from 6500 07/19/99
8858 from 6502 09/08/99
8859 from 6508 08/24/99
8860 from 6509 08/11/99
8861 from 6511 08/31/99
8862 from 6513 07/28/99
8863 from 6517 07/23/99
8864 from 6518 07/26/99
8865 from 6521 07/23/99
8866 from 6522 07/21/99
8868 from 6524 09/20/99
8869 from 6960 08/16/99
8870 from 6963 08/23/99
8871 from 6968 07/27/99
8872 from 6969 06/23/99
8873 from 6971 06/24/99
8875 from 6974 08/27/99
8876 from 6975 10/11/99
8877 from 6980 06/23/99
8878 from 6981 09/01/99
8879 from 6983 08/03/99
8880 from 6989 07/30/99
8881 from 6991 09/20/99
8882 from 6992 07/14/99
8883 from 6994 09/13/99
8884 from 6995 10/04/99
8885 from 6999 09/01/99
8886 from 6661 08/04/99
8887 no details
8888 from 6410 08/05/99
8889 from 6663 08/04/99
SD45-2 3/3 units
8973 from 6657 10/14/99
8974 from 6658 08/16/99
8976 from 6665 10/14/99
693/812 units as of 10/19/99
CRTS Update #09-101
Friday, September 10th, 1999 at 11:00 EDT
RINGLING BROTHERS & BARNUM BAILEY BLUE UNIT COMING:
The Ringling Brothers & Barnum Bailey blue unit circus train will
arrive in former Conrail territory early next week. It will travel over
former Conrail trackage now owned by both CSXT and Norfolk Southern. A
schedule of upcoming engagements is as follows:
Kemper Arena, Kansas City, MO
Friday, September 10th, 1999 through Sunday, September 12th, 1999
Market Square Arena, Indianapolis, IN:
Wednesday, September 15th, 1999 through Sunday, September 19, 1999
Van Andel Arena, Grand Rapids, MI:
Wednesday, September 22nd, 1999 through Sunday, September 26th, 1999
Marine Midland Arena, Buffalo, NY:
Thursday, September 30th, 1999 through Sunday, October 3rd, 1999
Joe Louis Arena, Detroit, MI:
Thursday, October 7th, 1999 through Sunday, October 10th, 1999
FleetCenter, Boston, MA:
Friday, October 15th, 1999 through Sunday, October 24th, 1999
Civic Arena, Pittsburgh, PA:
Wednesday, October 27th, 1999 through Sunday, October 31st, 1999
CRTS Update #10-39
Saturday, October 10th, 1998 at 22:00 EDT
Rail Freight Traffic Rises During Quarter
WASHINGTON, October 8th, 1998 - Freight traffic on U.S. railroads rose
both during the month of September and during the third quarter in
comparison with the same periods last year, the Association of American
Railroads (AAR) reported today.
Carload freight increased 3.8 percent during the month and 1.9 percent
for the quarter, said AAR Senior Assistant Vice President Craig F.
Rockey. "Automotive traffic has recovered from the General Motors strike
earlier this summer, with volume up 22.9 percent for the month and 11.9
percent for the quarter."
"Coal traffic was especially strong during September, registering a 5.5
percent gain over September 1997, Mr. Rockey said. "For the quarter,
coal loadings rose 4.0 percent. Grain traffic also began to show some
signs of recovery, with volume up 7.0 percent for the month and 1.6
percent for the quarter."
Intermodal traffic, which is not included in the carload data, was not
as strong as carload freight, he noted. Volume was off 1.4 percent for
September and 0.5 percent for the quarter. "That decline was due to
lower trailer volume, as container traffic was up both for the quarter
and for September itself."
Canadian railroads experienced the reverse of the U.S. situation, with
carload freight down and intermodal traffic up during both the third
quarter and September. Carload traffic was down 4.1 percent for the
month and 9.1 percent for the quarter, while intermodal registered a 2.3
percent rise for the month and 4.4 percent gain for the quarter.
"Canadian carload freight was especially hard hit by the weak demand for
export grain," Mr. Rockey said, with grain off 27.8 percent for the
month and 36.1 percent for the quarter. For just the week ended October
3, the AAR reported the following figures for U.S. railroads: 367,323
carloads, up 3.1 percent from the corresponding week last year; 183,728
trailers and containers, down 2.0 percent from last year; and total
volume of an estimated 27.7 billion ton-miles, up 4.1 percent from the
comparable 1997 week.
The AAR also reported the following cumulative U.S. totals for the first
39 weeks of 1998: 13,653,019 carloads, up 2.1 percent from 1997;
6,573,388 trailers and containers, up 0.4 percent; and total volume of
an estimated 1,026.3 billion ton-miles, up 1.3 percent from last year.
On Canadian railroads, volume during the week ended October 3 totaled
55,861 carloads, down 1.0 percent from the comparable 1997 week; and
29,894 trailers and containers, up 7.1 percent from last year. The
cumulative volume for the first 39 weeks of 1998 was 2,017,163 carloads,
down 3.5 percent from 1997, and 1,011,760 trailers and containers, up
4.5 percent from last year.
The AAR also reported the following combined U.S.-Canadian cumulative
totals for 19 reporting U.S. and Canadian railroads: 15,670,182
carloads, up 1.4 percent from last year; and 7,585,148 trailers and
containers, up 0.9 percent from 1997.
AAR is the world's leading railroad policy, research and technology
organization focusing on increasing the safety and productivity of rail
carriers.
CRTS Update #06-65
Saturday, June 19th, 1999 at 12:30 EDT
2 Rail Lines Inch Toward Stable Service
Some Trains Still Run Late For CSX, Norfolk Southern
By Don Phillips
Norfolk Southern Corp. and CSX Corp. yesterday limped to the end of a
third week of congestion and service breakdowns growing out of the
complicated merger with Conrail, but there were signs the problems may
be stabilizing.
Some customers of both Norfolk Southern and CSX reported improved
service, while others reported continued deterioration, including the
railroads' single largest customer, United Parcel Service of America
Inc.
Customer reports come in varying shades of alarm or ease. UPS, which not
only is the railroads' largest customer but the most demanding, said
both railroads were running hot UPS trains three to 13 hours late,
threatening to shred UPS's customer guarantees.
"For us, that is just unacceptable," said UPS spokesman Norman Black,
who said the company has crammed as many of its brown trucks as possible
back onto the highway. He estimated that perhaps half the UPS trucks
that were on rail cars before the June 1 merger -- mostly on CSX -- are
back on the road.
Black said service is not in a meltdown. "We do view this as a temporary
problem. We are upset it happened. We did not expect it to happen this
way."
However, Ford Motor Co., one of Norfolk Southern's largest customers,
said that while service is still a problem and some plant overtime work
has been cut back for lack of supplies, there have been no plant
shutdowns. "We don't consider any of this important at this point," Ford
spokesman Ron Iori said.
A snapshot of system statistics, while inconclusive in the short run,
indicates that things are not getting worse. A key measure of
congestion, the number of cars on each railroad that have not been
delivered to customers, stabilized over the past few days. But some key
yards remain congested on both railroads, and freight train crews are
sometimes unable to complete trips before they reach the maximum 12
hours on duty under federal law.
In an effort to assure that exhausted crews work through the weekend to
whittle down a backlog of traffic, both railroads have called on their
unions for help.
Norfolk Southern, which traditionally has had a less friendly
relationship with national rail unions than CSX, has asked for help and
has offered a bonus of up to double pay for any union member who works
through the weekend to help clear the traffic backlog.
"We're seeing the beginnings of change over there [at Norfolk
Southern]," said Charles Little, president of the United Transportation
Union, who said the union is doing everything possible to help the
railroads.
Both railroads, which split the eastern railroad Conrail between them on
June 1, have made headway in fixing dumbfounding computer problems that
have sent thousands of freight cars astray. This included an odd quirk
on Norfolk Southern called the "ping-pong effect," in which a computer
declares a loaded car suddenly empty and orders the car returned to its
original terminal.
On CSX, computer systems that had seemed to be operating properly last
week suddenly spent a couple of days selectively misrouting hundreds of
cars.
Norfolk Southern still appears to be in worse shape than CSX, but
Richmond-based CSX also suffers congestion problems that have resulted
in deteriorated service.
Ronald Conway, CSX executive vice president for operations, said
customers on former Conrail lines are not getting the service they
received under Conrail. "I can't say when we will get back up to Conrail
service," he said. However, "we're going back in the right direction."
The railroads have invested in hurried construction projects to relieve
seriously congested yards. And they have shifted large volumes of
freight to alternate routes on smaller railroads, effectively
reactivating former main lines that were declared surplus.
"There's a lot of track still out there," said James W. McClellan,
Norfolk Southern senior vice president. McClellan said formerly excess
infrastructure in the East may be one of several important reasons that
it will be spared the fate of service meltdown that hit the West after
the Union Pacific's 1996 merger with Southern Pacific.
Alan W. Maples, president of the Everett Railroad Co. of Duncansville,
Pa., one of many short-line railroads that have suffered serious service
disruptions, said Norfolk Southern computer systems can at least now
tell him the location of almost all of his incoming cars. "I'm feeling
better today," Maples said. "I hope I'll feel much better next week."
CRTS Update #06-61
Friday, June 18th, 1999 at 23:35 EDT
Conrail still exists
Conrail still exists, as a terminal operator for owners Norfolk Southern
and CSX in three "shared assets areas" in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and
New Jersey, and sent out this summary of its role.
Conrail's heritage of providing safe and efficient rail service
continues today for many local rail freight customers in Detroit, New
Jersey, and Philadelphia. As of June 1, Conrail owners CSX
Transportation and Norfolk Southern absorbed most of Conrail's former
operations in 12 Northeastern and Midwestern states, so today Conrail's
role is to provide customers along its remaining lines with access to
CSX, NS and, through them, to the nation's rail network.
Although Conrail no longer handles most commercial matters for
customers, it plays a critical role in serving shippers and receivers as
agent for its owners. As agent, it's Conrail's job as local rail service
provider to make sure that customers' freight shipments are safely and
efficiently moved between their sidings and the long distance freight
trains operated by CSX and NS. In addition, CSX and NS operate trains
over Conrail tracks to reach major yards, terminals, and distribution
facilities located in Detroit, New Jersey, and Philadelphia.
In the Detroit area, Conrail operations over nearly 90 miles of railroad
are focused in the north-south corridor connecting Trenton, Detroit, and
Sterling Heights/Utica, Mich. Major yards served by Conrail include
Livernois, North, River Rouge, and Sterling yards. Geographic limits
include Trenton on the south, Carleton on the southwest, and CP Townline
in Dearborn on the west.
In northern New Jersey, Conrail operates nearly 200 miles of railroad
concentrated in Essex, Hudson, Middlesex, Monmouth, Ocean, and Union
counties. The hub of CR activities is Oak Island Yard in Newark, with
smaller yards in Bayonne, Greenville (Jersey City), Linden, Manville,
Metuchen, Newark, Old Bridge, Port Reading (Woodbridge), and Red Bank.
Conrail also operates new automobile distribution facilities in the area
on behalf of its owners, and provides local freight service along
Amtrak's Northeast Corridor between Newark and Trenton.
In the Philadelphia/southern New Jersey area, Conrail operates about 250
miles of railroad, providing local freight service on virtually all
lines south of Trenton, and provides connections with the short lines
serving the remainder of the region.
In Pennsylvania, Conrail lines serve many customers in Philadelphia, and
along or near the Delaware River in Chester and lower Bucks counties.
Conrail also provides local service for customers along Amtrak's
Northeast Corridor between Philadelphia and Trenton.
The hub of Conrail operations in the region is Pavonia Yard in Camden,
N.J., with local yards in Chester, Morrisville, and the Midvale, Port
Richmond, and South Philadelphia areas of Philadelphia. In New Jersey,
local yards are at Burlington City, Mount Holly, Paulsboro, and
Woodbury.
Conrail's company headquarters are located at 2 Commerce Square,
Philadelphia. In addition to the company's office of the president,
other functions located in the Center City headquarters include
community relations, employee and corporate communications, finance and
administration, human resources, labor relations, and law. Conrail's
Mount Laurel (N.J.) office houses Conrail's operations functions,
including engineering, mechanical, police, and transportation, including
a computer-assisted train dispatching facility. A customer service
office will be transferred to Mount Laurel from Pittsburgh later in
1999.
CRTS Update #06-60
Friday, June 18th, 1999 at 23:30 EDT
AAR reports on Conrail break up
The first substantive, systemwide data that tracks the breakup of
Conrail Inc. confirm shipper reports about delays and congestion since
CSX Corp. and Norfolk Southern Corp. took over on June 1, the Journal of
Commerce reported today.
Though information about systemwide operations remains sketchy,
statistical data and shipper reports point to weak carloadings, sluggish
train operations and bloated terminals.
Specific comparisons to past performance aren't available for some
operational indicators because the carriers chose not to disclose
historical information.
The subpar performance comes despite optimistic projections about smooth
operations and traffic increases that both companies delivered right up
until June 1.
Shippers, regulators and industry analysts are monitoring the
performance of NS and CSX because of the post-merger problems on Western
railroads over the past three years.
Union Pacific Railroad's problems were severe enough that the company
was required to provide detailed weekly reports to the Surface
Transportation Board so that regulators could gauge how much progress
had been made in restoring normal operations.
The total business volume of NS, CSX and the surviving remnant of
Conrail last week trailed 1998 levels for those three railroads by 8%.
Last week was the first week when meaningful comparisons could be drawn.
Traffic declined by 15% in the week ending June 5, but that comparison
was skewed because the Memorial Day holiday fell in different weeks
during 1999 and 1998.
The traffic numbers, compiled and released by the Association of
American Railroads, included a note saying "carload figures reported by
CSXT and NS are preliminary and will be revised upwards as the
integration is completed."
Early traffic numbers don't support post-Conrail expectations on revenue
and traffic growth by both railroads.
The latest reports show a substantial spike in the number of freight
cars on the NS system from week to week.
The freight car count is widely used in the rail industry to measure
whether a system is becoming clogged or more fluid.
NS last week had more than 240,000 freight cars on its system, 7.5% more
than the week before. By comparison, CSX's car count increased by 1%
from week to week to more than 245,000.
At the height of its service disaster, the extent of Union Pacific
Railroad's gridlock was reflected in a car count that was about 15%
higher than optimum levels.
CSX and NS train operations over the past two weeks can't be compared
with operations on the stand-alone Conrail system before June 1, because
Conrail never publicly disclosed its car count, train speeds or yard
performance.
NS and CSX removed pre-June 1 data about their operations, making
month-to-month comparisons impossible.
Both railroads claimed the Conrail acquisition triggered enough changes
to make comparisons impossible.
Train operations in northern New Jersey, the Philadelphia area and
Detroit are sluggish, with more than a third of departures from some
major terminals six or more hours behind schedule.
Only 25% of the trains in areas where NS and CSX have operations left on
time. There was no significant change in on-time service from week to
week.
Those regions, called shared-asset areas, appeared to be in some
trouble, as "terminal dwell time" -- the period needed to process
freight cars -- doubled.
In Detroit, it took three times as long to sort cars between trains.
Service performance at major intermodal terminals in New Jersey was not
released, but some customers have reported problems.
Terminal operations slowed from week to week at almost every other major
freight yard previously operated by Conrail.
In Buffalo, dwell time at CSX facilities once owned by Conrail increased
50%. Indianapolis dwell time rose 25%, on CSX, and Albany, N.Y., area
yards were running 15% slower.
Yards in Pittsburgh, Columbus, Ohio, and Elkhart, Ind., that once were
Conrail's and now are owned by NS were running slower.
Only Harrisburg, Pa., cited by some in anecdotal reports as a trouble
spot, processed cars faster last week than the week before.
The Oak Island yard in Newark, N.J., was as much as 40% above capacity
during some of last week.
Train speeds were slowing as well.
The average NS train ran 6% slower last week than the week before. All
types of traffic were affected. CSX speeds dropped 2% to 18.8 mph. The
only area of improvement was grain trains.
NS and CSX also file confidential reports at the Surface Transportation
Board with detailed on-time performance, interchange and terminal
efficiency.
CRTS Update #06-42
Monday, June 14th, 1999 at 18:50 EDT
Norfolk Southern, CSX Struggle
With Ex-Conrail's Freight Delays
By DANIEL MACHALABA
Trouble spots have broken out on the former Conrail Inc. rail system
recently divided between Norfolk Southern Corp. and CSX Corp.,
causing freight tie-ups and service failures for railroad customers.
Norfolk Southern acknowledged that computer foul-ups have led to
misrouted shipments and backups at major freight yards in the Northeast
and Midwest. Industry officials said that in some cases, Norfolk
Southern
computers were misclassifying railroad cars as empty, when in fact they
were loaded. The result is that some cars were sent to the wrong place.
CSX also cited some computer problems and freight delays at facilities
in
Cleveland, Indianapolis and Albany, N.Y.
Problems Worsen
The latest reports indicate that instead of getting better, problems
that
were
reported in the first week after the June 1 Conrail carve-up are
persisting,
and may even be getting worse.
The railroads said they are taking remedial action and expect to have
the
former Conrail routes running smoothly in two to three weeks. But some
people said that the railroads are in a critical stage when they must
demonstrate they are in control or in danger of being overwhelmed by the
problems. Already, the railroads have parked some trains on sidings and
have run short of crews because of congestion. If left unchecked, such
problems can have a ripple effect.
"It's either going to peak and boil over, or they will fix the fires,"
said
Gary
Landrio, a vice president of Stone Consulting & Design Inc., Warren, Pa.
Ford Shutdowns
Last week, Ford Motor Co. shut down some production briefly at its
plants in Buffalo, N.Y., and Oakville, Ontario, because rail shipments
of
critical materials arrived late. Ford spokesman Ron Iori said the
company
is closely monitoring rail shipments to avoid outages at Ford plants in
Ohio
and Michigan.
J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc., a Lowell, Ark., trucking company that
uses rail for many of its long-distance deliveries, said some Norfolk
Southern trains between Chicago and northern New Jersey have been as
much as eight hours late. As a result, J.B. Hunt has had to reschedule
delivery appointments with its customers. J.B. Hunt and United Parcel
Service of America Inc., another big rail user, said they will wait
until the
middle of the week to decide if rail service is improving or
they need
to
divert shipments to the highways.
Even Amtrak, the national passenger railroad, reported that some of its
trains that operate over former Conrail tracks are running late due to
freight
congestion.
At least so far, the rail problems in the East aren't anywhere near as
severe
as those in the West in 1997 and 1998 after Union Pacific Corp. took
over
Southern Pacific Rail Corp. Those problems led to rail gridlock, massive
freight backups and higher costs for rail users. The Union Pacific
problems
also made rail customers nervous about the planned $10 billion takeover
and carve-up of Conrail.
Norfolk Southern, Norfolk, Va., said computer foul-ups have caused
some of its freight yards to fall behind. The company said it has
identified
the cause of the problem and is implementing a solution. Meanwhile, it
is
making sure that some processes continue to function on a manual basis.
"We've experienced some difficulties, and we are working arduously to
resolve those issues," said Steve Tobias, Norfolk Southern's chief
operating officer. "We are extremely regretful of any inconvenience or
disappointment we have caused in our customer-service package."
Michael Ward, an executive vice president at CSX's rail unit, said
Cleveland has become a bottleneck for its new operation. Richmond,
Va.-based CSX is shifting some fueling operations to other locations,
rescheduling trains to arrive at different times and accelerating
construction
of additional tracks. He said a "minor mismatch between [computer] files
at
CSX and Conrail" caused a backup of 800 freight cars at the company's
yard near Albany, but a change in procedure is eliminating the backup.
"We aren't ready to declare victory," Mr. Ward said. "Things won't be
running as well as we would like until the end of this month."
CRTS Update #06-37
Saturday, June 12th, 1999 at 14:20 EDT
CONRAIL ALPHA SYSTEM CONVERSION LIST: PART ONE
ALBU NS 41A Allentown - Harrisburg - Buffalo
ALCA NS 48G Allentown - Camden
ALCS NS 43A Allentown - Philadelphia/Park Jct
ALED NS 45A Allentown - Edge Moor/Bell DE
ALHB NS 49A Allentown - Enola
ALLI NS 457 Allentown - Hagerstown - Linwood NC
ALPI-F NS 11A Allentown - Conway
ARIN CSX Q234 Salem/UP IL - Indianapolis/Avon
ASIN CSX Q282 E.St.Louis - Indianapolis/Avon
ATPI NS 41E Altoona - Conway
BAPI NS 13A Baltimore/Sparrow's Point - Conway
BBBU CSX Q386 Willard - Buffalo/Frontier
BHEL NS 40G Burns Harbor - Elkhart
BHIN NS 48M Burns Harbor - Anderson IN
BIBV NS 11T Binghamton - Vermillion - Bellevue
BNST NS 18Q E.St.Louis - Warren/Sterling
BOSE CSX Q421 Boston/Beacon Park - Selkirk
BREL NS 44G Chicago/BRC - Elkhart
BRPI NS 16E Chicago/BRC - Conway
BUAL NS 40A Buffalo - Harrisburg - Allentown
BUCI CSX Q365 Buffalo/Frontier - Cincinnati/Queensgate
BUCU CSX Q641 Buffalo/Frontier - Cumberland
BUCW CSX Q357 Buffalo/Frontier - Chicago
BUEL NS 13M Buffalo - Ashtabula - Elkhart
BUHE NS 15J Buffalo - Ashtabula - Hennepin
BUIN CSX Q363 Buffalo/Frontier - Indianapolis/Avon
BUOI NS 46G Buffalo - Oak Island/Newark
BURX CSX Q393 Buffalo/Frontier - Willard West
BUSY CSX Q624 Buffalo/Frontier - Dewitt
BUUP CSX Q351 Buffalo/Frontier - Chicago/UP
BVBI NS 12T Bellevue - Vermillion - Binghamton
BVMF NS 13K Bellevue - Mansfield
BVMR NS 49N Bellevue - Moraine
BVPI NS 12K Bellevue - Conway
CAAL NS 49G Camden - Allentown
CAPI NS 19E Camden - Conway
CASE CSX Q418 Camden - Selkirk
CCAL NS 15A South Amboy/Brown's - Allentown
CHPI NS 180 Chattanooga - Cincinnati - Conway
CIBU CSX Q366 Cincinnati/Queensgate - Buffalo/Frontier
CIIN CSX Q361 Cincinnati/Queensgate - Indianapolis/Avon
CNSE CSX Q620 Massena - Selkirk
COCS NS 43N Columbus/Buckeye - Cincinnati/CSX
CODI NS 44N Columbus/Buckeye - Dickinson WV
COEL NS 11M Columbus/Buckeye - Elkhart
COIH CSX K521 Columbus/CSX - Indiana Harbor/IHB
COIN CSX Q311 Columbus/CSX - Indianapolis/Avon
COLO NS 405 Columbus/Buckeye - Lordstown
COLT NS 18J Columbus/Buckeye - Lordstown
COMR-A NS 47N Columbus/Buckeye - Moraine
COMR-B NS 49N Columbus/Buckeye - Moraine
CONS NS 117 Columbus/Buckeye - Cincinnati
COPI NS 12V Columbus/Buckeye - Conway
CORO NS 148 Columbus/Buckeye - Watkins OH - Roanoke
COST NS 19M Columbus/Buckeye - Warren/Sterling
COTO CSX Q636 Columbus/CSX - Toledo/Stanley
CSAL NS 42A Philadelphia/Park Jct - Allentown
CSCO NS 40N Cincinnati/CSX - Columbus/Buckeye
CTSE CSX K276 Baltimore/Bay View - Selkirk
CUBU CSX Q640 Cumberland - Lordstown - Buffalo/Frontier
CWBU CSX Q356 Chicago - Buffalo/Frontier
CWIN CSX Q643 Chicago - Lafayette - Indianapolis/Avon
CWTO CSX Q509 Chicago - Willard - Toledo/Stanley
DECI CSX Q503 Detroit/CSX - Lima - Cincinnati/Queensgate
DEIN CSX Q594 Decatur - Terre Haute - Indianapolis/Avon
DICO NS 45N Dickinson WV - Columbus/Buckeye
DREL NS 43J Detroit/River Rouge - Elkhart
ELBH NS 41G Elkhart - Burns Harbor
ELBN NS 43G Elkhart - Cicero/BNSF
ELBR NS 45G Elkhart - Chicago/BRC
ELBU NS 12M Elkhart - Ashtabula - Buffalo
ELCH NS 143 Elkhart - Cincinnati - Chattanooga
ELCO NS 10M Elkhart - Columbus/Buckeye
ELDL NS 42J Elkhart - Detroit/Livernois
ELGR NS 46E Elkhart - Grand Rapids
ELIH NS 45J Elkhart - Boone-IHB
ELJA NS 48J Elkhart - Jackson MI
ELKA NS 47J Elkhart - Kankakee
ELNP NS 43E Elkhart - Ogden Ave - North Platte
ELPI-A NS 14N Elkhart - Conway
ELPI-B NS 16N Elkhart - Conway
ELPR NS 45E Elkhart - Ogden Ave - Proviso
ELSF-A NS 41K Elkhart - Streator
ELSO NS 47M Elkhart - Chicago/BRC
ELST NS 48E Elkhart - Warren/Sterling
ELTO NS 46M Elkhart - Toledo
ENAL NS 48A Enola - Allentown
ESPI NS 13G Harrington DE - Conway
FRSE CSX Q423 Framingham - Selkirk
HEBU NS 14J Hennepin - Ashtabula - Buffalo
HMOI CSX Q412 Hamlet - Baltimore/Bay View - Oak Island
GREL NS 47E Grand Rapids - Elkhart
GRTO CSX Q334 Grand Rapids - Toledo/Stanley
ICIN CSX Q639 Effingham - Indianapolis/Avon
ICPI NS 16K Tolono - Vermillion - Conway
IHCO CSX K520 Toledo/Stanley - Columbus/CSX
IHDL NS 46A Indiana Harbor-IHB - Detroit-Livernois
IHEL NS 44J Boone-IHB - Elkhart
IHSE CSX Q380 Indiana Harbor-IHB - Selkirk
INAS CSX Q281 Indianapolis-Avon - E.St.Louis
INBU CSX Q362 Indianapolis-Avon - Buffalo-Frontier
INCI CSX Q360 Indianapolis/Avon - Cincinnati/Queensgate
INCO CSX Q310 Indianapolis/Avon - Columbus/CSX
INCW CSX Q642 Indianapolis/Avon - Lafayette - Chicago
INDE CSX Q593 Indianapolis/Avon - Terre Haute - Decatur
INFW CSX Q379 Indianapolis/Avon - Salem - Fort Worth
INNA CSX Q651 Indianapolis/Avon - Evansville - Nashville
INSE CSX Q364 Indianapolis/Avon - Selkirk
INTO CSX Q309 Indianapolis/Avon - Toledo/Stanley
INTR CSX Q373 Indianapolis/Avon - E.St.Louis/TRRA
KAEL NS 46J Kankakee - Elkhart
LAEL NS 49J Lansing - Elkhart
LAPI NS 11G Lancaster PA - Conway
LASE CSX Q425 Barber Station/GRS - Selkirk
LIAL NS 456 Linwood NC - Hagerstown - Allentown
LIOI NS 154 Linwood NC to Oak Island/Newark
LMPI NS 15G Linden-Metuchen - Conway
LMSE CSX Q265 Linden-Metuchen - Selkirk
LOBA CSX Q368 Louisville - New Castle - Baltimore
LOCO NS 406 Lordstown - Columbus/Buckeye
LTCO NS 19J Lordstown - Columbus/Buckeye
MEPI NS 45K Meadville - Conway
MOPI NS 17G Morrisville - Conway
MRBV NS 48N Moraine - Bellevue
MRCO-A NS 46N Moraine - Columbus/Buckeye
MRCO-B NS 48N Moraine - Columbus/Buckeye
MYTO NS 49K Chrysler/Twinsburg - Toledo/East Yard
NAIN CSX Q514 Nashville - Indianapolis/Avon
NESE CSX Q427 Barber Station/GRS - Selkirk
NFSE CSX Q628 Niagara Falls - Selkirk
NLIN CSX Q376 North Little Rock - Indianapolis/Avon
NLPI NS 10E North Little Rock - Butler - Conway
NLSE CSX Q374 North Little Rock - Salem - Selkirk
NPBV NS 14A North Platte - Ogden Ave - Bellevue
NPPI NS 18A North Platte -Ogden Ave - Conway
NPSE CSX Q390 North Platte - Willard - Selkirk
NSCO NS 116 Cincinnati - Columbus/Buckeye
OIBU NS 47G Oak Island/Newark - Buffalo
OIEL NS 11N Oak Island/Newark - Elkhart
OILI NS 155 Oak Island/Newark -Hagerstown - Linwood NC
OIRM CSX Q413 Oak Island/Newark - Richmond/Acca
OJTA CSX K651 Greenville NJ - Bay View - Bradenton FL
OPSE CSX Q430 Oak Point - Selkirk
PGLO CSX Q375 Philadelphia/Greenwaich - Louisville
PIAL NS 10A Conway - Allentown
PIAT NS 40E Conway - Altoona
PIBA NS 12A Conway - Baltimore/River
PIBE NS 10N Conway - Bethlehem
PIBR NS 17E Conway - Chicago/BRC
PIBV NS 13K Conway - Bellevue
PICA NS 18E Conway - Camden
PICH NS 179 Conway - Chattanooga
PICO NS 13V Conway - Columbus/Buckeye
PIDE NS 35N Conway - Decatur
PIEL-A NS 15N Conway - Elkhart
PIEL-B NS 17N Conway - Elkhart
PIES NS 12G Conway - Harrington DE
PIEW NS 11E Conway - Butler - UP Texas
PIIC NS 17K Conway - Vermillion - Centralia IL
PILA NS 10G Conway - Lancaster PA
PIME NS 44K Conway - Meadville
PIML NS 14G Conway - Metuchen/Linden NJ
PIMO NS 16G Conway - Morrisville
PIOI-B NS 18G Conway - Oak Island/Newark
PIPR NS 19A Conway - Ogden Ave - Proviso-UP
PIRO NS 127 Conway - Hagerstown - Roanoke
PWSE CSX Q437 Worcester/P&W - Selkirk
ROCO NS 147 Roanoke - Watkins OH - Columbus/Buckeye
ROPI NS 126 Roanoke - Hagerstown - Conway
RXBU CSX Q392 Willard - Buffalo/Frontier
RYSE CSX Q410 Rocky Mount - Selkirk
SABU CSX Q432 South Amboy/Brown's - Buffalo/Frontier
SAWI CSX Q396 Saginaw - Stanley - Walbridge - Wilmington
SEBB CSX Q387 Selkirk - Willard West
SEBO CSX Q420 Selkirk - Boston/Beacon Park
SEBR CSX Q389 Selkirk - Chicago/BRC
SEBU CSX Q439 Selkirk - Buffalo/Frontier
SECA CSX Q417 Selkirk - Camden
SECN CSX Q621 Selkirk - Massena
SECT CSX Q277 Selkirk - Baltimore/Bay Viw
SEFR CSX Q436 Selkirk - Framingham
SEIN CSX Q367 Selkirk - Indianapolis/Avon
SELA CSX Q428 Selkirk - Barber Station/GRS
SELI CSX L431 Selkirk - Oak Point
SENE CSX Q426 Selkirk - Barber Station/GRS
SENF CSX Q629 Selkirk - Niagara Falls
SEPW CSX Q422 Selkirk - Worcester/P&W
SESA CSX Q433 Selkirk - South Amboy/Brown's
SESP CSX Q429 Selkirk - West Springfield
SETA CSX Q409 Selkirk - Tampa
SETO CSX Q391 Selkirk - Willard - Toledo/Stanley
SFEL NS 40K Streator - Elkhart
SFPI NS 10R Streator - Conway
SLIN CSX Q370 E.St.Louis/TRRA - Indianapolis/Avon
SPSE CSX Q424 West Springfield - Selkirk
STBN NS 17J Warren/Sterling - Madison/TRRA
STCO NS 10K Warren/Sterling - Columbus/Buckeye
STEL NS 49E Warren/Sterling - Elkhart
STIT NS 17M Warren/Sterling - Indianapolis/IT
STPI NS 12N Warren/Sterling - Conway
STTO CSX Q305 Warren/Sterling - Toledo/Stanley
SYBU CSX Q625 Dewitt - Buffalo/Frontier
SYMS CSX Q622 Dewitt - Massena
TAOJ CSX K650 Bradenton FL - Bay View - Greenville NJ
TOCI CSX Q507 Toledo/Stanley - Lima - Cincinnati/Queensgate
TOCO CSX Q637 Toledo/Stanley - Columbus/CSX
TOCW CSX Q508 Toledo/Stanley - Willard - Chicago
TOEL NS 43M Toledo - Elkhart
TOGR CSX Q335 Toledo/Stanley - Grand Rapids
TOIN CSX Q308 Toledo/Stanley - Indianapolis/Avon
TOMT CSX Q263 Toledo/Stanley - Metuchen
TOMY NS 48K Toledo - Chrysler/Twinsburg
TOPI NS 16J Toledo - Conway
TOWS CSX Q304 Toledo/Stanley - Warren/Sterling
CRTS Update #06-38
Saturday, June 12th, 1999 at 14:30 EDT
CONRAIL ALPHA SYSTEM CONVERSION LIST: PART TWO
ML-221 CSX Q221 Lordstown - Indianapolis/Avon
ML-231 CSX Q231 Toledo/Walbridge - Evansville
ML-243 CSX Q243 Marysville - Cincinnati/Queensgate
ML-268 CSX Q268 Cleveland/Collinwood - Dockside/Port Newark
ML-276 CSX Q276 Indianapolis/Avon - Willard - Twin Oaks PA
ML-291 CSX Q291 Buffalo/Seneca - Gibson IN
ML-401 CSX Q271 Doremus Ave/Newark - Marysville
ML-403 NS 11J Metuchen - Bellevue
ML-407 CSX Q273 Metuchen - Buffalo/Seneca
ML-411 NS 47K Port Wilmington DE - Buffalo
ML-417 NS 13J Wimington DE - Chicago
ML-420 NS 46K Buffalo - Port Wilmington DE
ML-421 NS 11K Oak Harbor OH - Gibson IN
ML-430 CSX Q290 Warren/Sterling - Dockside/Port Newark
ML-433 CSX Q277 Framingham - Warren/Sterling
ML-438 CSX Q294 West Springfield - Ayer/GRS
ML-440 NS 18N Warren/Sterling - Doremus Ave/Newark
ML-441 NS 41M Detroit/North Yard - Gibson IN
ML-451 CSX Q246 Marysville - Chicago
ML-453 CSX Q288 Garrett - Marysville
ML-460 CSX Q270 Evansville - Cleveland/Collinwood
ML-470 CSX Q284 Toledo/Stanley - Cleveland/Collinwood
ML-480 NS 10J Toledo - Harrisburg - Croxton
ML-482 CSX Q264 Cleveland/Collinwood - Framingham
ML-488 CSX Q254 Cleveland/Collinwood - Selkirk
ML-490 NS 12J Cicero/BNSF - Oak Harbor OH
ML-493 NS 27E Elkhart - South Chicago - Wentzville MO
TVBN CSX Q169 North Bergen NJ to Bedford Park IL
TVLA NS 21M Croxton NJ to Chicago 47th St. IL
TVLT NS 24K Chicago 47th St IL to Croxton NJ
TV-1 NS 21Q Morrisville-TV PA to BNSF-TV Corwith IL
TV-10 NS 20K Chicago 47th St IL to Croxton NJ
TV-10B CSX Q150 Toledo-Walbridge OH to Boston-Beacon Park MA
TV-100 CSX Q110 Garrett IN to North Bergen NJ
TV-102 CSX L110 Willard OH to North Bergen NJ
TV-11 NS 21R E'port E-Rail NJ to Chicago Ashland Ave IL
TV-12 NS 20R Chicago Ashland Ave IL to E'port E-Rail NJ
TV-13 CSX Q113 Boston-Beacon Park MA to Chicago 59th St IL
TV-134 CSX Q134 Cleveland-Collinwood OH to Ashtabula OH
TV-135 CSX Q135 CP-River PA to Baltimore-Chicago-Englewood TV IL
TV-14 CSX Q114 Willard OH to Boston-Beacon Park MA
TV-141 CSX Q141 Detroit-TV MI to Toledo-Walbridge OH
TV-151 CSX Q151 Cleveland-Collinwood OH to Detroit-TV MI
TV-172 CSX Q172 Little Ferry NJ to Selkirk NY
TV-173 CSX Q173 Little Ferry NJ to Jacksonville FL
TV-174 CSX Q174 Baltimore-Bay View MD to Selkirk NY
TV-175 CSX Q175 Philadelphia-Greenwich PA to Orlando FL
TV-176 CSX Q176 Acca-Richmond VA to Philadelphia-Greenwich PA
TV-18 CSX Q162 Willard OH to Kearny NJ
TV-2H NS 22W Chicago 47th St IL to Harrisburg PA
TV-2HK NS 20G Chicago 47th St IL to Harrisburg PA
TV-2M NS 20Q Chicago-Ashland Ave IL to Morrisville-TV PA
TV-20 NS 20V Harrisburg PA to Philadelphia-Ameriport PA
TV-20N NS 20N Chicago-Ashland Ave IL to Detroit-TV MI
TV-200 NS 20Z Chicago-UP Proviso IL to API-Kearny NJ via PRR
TV-202 NS 22Z Chicago-Ashland Ave IL to Croxton NJ via PRR
TV-203 NS 23Z API-Kearny NJ to Global 1 UP IL via EL
TV-204 NS 24Z Chicago-Ashland Ave IL to Croxton NJ via PRR
TV-207 NS 23M Port Newark NJ to UP Global 2 IL via PRR
TV-21 NS 21V Philadelphia-Ameriport PA to Enola PA
TV-211 NS 211 Croxton NJ to Atlanta GA
TV-212 NS 212 Hagerstown MD to Croxton NJ
TV-213 NS 213 Croxton NJ to Dallas TX via Meridian MS (KCS)
TV-214 NS 214 Atlanta GA to Croxton NJ
TV-22 NS 24M Chicago 47th St IL to Baltimore-TV MD
TV-220 NS 22N Chicago-Ashland Ave IL to Columbus OH
TV-221 NS 23N Columbus OH to Chicago-Ashland Ave IL
TV-24 CSX Q112 Willard OH to Boston-Beacon Park MA
TV-24P CSX Q184 Selkirk NY to Dockside-Port Newark NJ
TV-261 CSX Q165 Kearny-TV NJ to Chicago IL
TV-265 NS 25K Croxton NJ to Cicero-BNSF IL via EL
TV-268 NS 268 Chicago-Landers IL to Albany NY
TV-269 NS 269 Albany NY to Chicago-Landers IL
TV-3 NS 21T E'port NJ to Kansas City MO via PRR
TV-300 CSX Q152 Chicago IL to Kearny-TV NJ
TV-301 CSX L157 Kearny-TV NJ to Chicago-UP Global 1/2 IL
TV-302 CSX Q156 Willard OH to Kearny NJ
TV-304 CSX Q164 Willard OH to Kearny NJ
TV-307 CSX Q159 Dockside-Port Newark NJ to Syracuse NY
TV-320 CSX L146 Garrett IN to Columbus-TV OH
TV-321 CSX Q147 Columbus-TV OH to Chicago-UP Global 1 IL
TV-5 CSX L115 Boston-Beacon Park MA to E.St.Louis-Rose Lake IL
TV-6 CSX Q116 E.St.Louis-Rose Lake IL to Boston-Beacon Park MA
TV-61 NS 24W Baltimore-TV MD to Chicago-47th St IL
TV-61H NS 25V Allentown-TV PA to Harrisburg PA
TV-62A NS 24V Harrisburg PA to Allentown-TV PA
TV-7 CSX Q117 Boston-Beacon Park MA to Chicago-Englewood TV IL
TV-77 CSX Q161 Kearny-TV NJ to Chicago-Bedford Park IL
TV-79 CSX Q167 Worcester MA to Cincinnati-Queensgate OH
TV-8 CSX Q160 Willard OH to North Bergen NJ
TV-8W CSX Q166 Syracuse NY to Boston-Beacon Park MA
TV-80W CSX L158 Selkirk NY to Worcester MA
TV-9 CSX Q119 Boston-Beacon Park MA to Chicago-Bedford Park IL
TV-99 CSX Q109 North Bergen NJ to BNSF-Willow Springs IL
MAIL-3 NS 21J Croxton NJ to Harrisburg PA
MAIL-44 NS 20A Butler IN to E'port-E-Rail NJ
MAIL-46 CSX Q108 E.St.Louis-Rose Lake IL to Little Ferry NJ
MAIL-5 CSX Q111 Little Ferry NJ to E.St.Louis-Rose Lake IL
MAIL-8 NS 22K Chicago-47th St IL to Croxton NJ
MAIL-8M NS 20E Chicago-47th St IL to Morrisville-TV PA
MAIL-8S CSX Q168 Selkirk NY to Boston-Beacon Park MA
MAIL-9 NS 21E Morrisville-TV PA to Willow Springs IL
MAIL-9H NS 21W Harrisburg PA to Chicago-47th St IL
CRTS Update #04-20
Monday, April 5th, 1999 at 13:20 EDT
Conrail Shared Assets Areas' locomotives to remain blue
Although Conrail locomotives are being renumbered to fit into the
rosters of CSX and Norfolk Southern and will wear new reporting
marks, not all of the "Big Blue" fleet will see CSX's gray, blue,
and
yellow paint or NS's black-and-white. The 138 locomotives that
CSX and NS have assigned to the Shared Asset Areas--where
Conrail will survive after the June 1 "Day One" split to provide
local and yard service for its new owners--will remain in Conrail
blue, complete with the Conrail logo, says CR spokesman Bob
Libkind.
The "new Conrail" roster is heavy on switchers and
low-horsepower units and light on high-horsepower road units.
The big exceptions are the 11 ex-Erie Lackawanna SD45-2's--the
oldest road power left on Conrail--that will roam the North Jersey
and Philadelphia-South Jersey shared asset territories. The two
Jersey areas are assigned 111 units: 12 GP15-1's, 46 B23-7's, 2
GP40-2's, the 11 SD45-2's, 11 GP38's, 11 GP38-2's, 11
SW1001's, 4 SW1500's, and 3 SD40-2's. The Detroit shared
asset area is assigned 18 GP15-1's, 3 GP38-2's, 2 SD40-2's, and
4 SW1500's.
On March 12, the first of 1108 Conrail units to be renumbered
into the NS fleet emerged from the shop at Enola, Pa.: SD50
6715, which came out as PRR 5409, a number last worn by an
Alco RS3 and, before that, a K4s 4-6-2.
Technically, NS and CSX won't own any Conrail locomotives.
They'll be owned by the shared assets Conrail and the two new
subsidiaries, Pennsylvania Lines LLC (PRR), which goes to NS,
and New York Central Lines LLC (NYC), which goes to CSX.
The names are both a nod to history and a rough parallel of how
Conrail territory is being carved up.
Locomotives going to NS are being prepared just like CR 6715,
with new number boards and a vinyl decal affixed to the cabsides,
bearing the new number and PRR initials. Although Conrail freight
cars destined for CSX wear NYC reporting marks, locomotives
will sport CSXT initials, CSX says. As of March, CSX expected
to begin renumbering its 802 Conrail units after June 1 when they
come in for their 90-day maintenance, and did not expect to fully
repaint any CR locomotives until they're in for heavy work. NS
expects to have all its Conrail units repainted within 5 years.
Bill Stephens, Trains Newswire
CRTS Update #04-11
Saturday, April 3rd, 1999 at 00:20 EST
WASHINGTON- CSX Corp. and Norfolk Southern Corp. are bracing for
minor service snags as they prepare to split Conrail routes between them
two months from today.
Seeking to play down the significance of any problems, officials from
the
two companies said Wednesday that the transition will not be error-free
and
that disruptions are inevitable.
They said they have maximized planning and capacity so that any
problems
do not lead to a service meltdown similar to one that faced Union
Pacific
Railroad following its 1996 merger with Southern Pacific Rail Corp.
``We expect things will go bump in the night, so we have contingencies
...
and more assets and people than you really need,'' said John Snow, CSX
chairman and chief executive.
Slowdowns will occur in the first several hours of the transition as
computers are shut down and reprogrammed, forcing a temporary shift to
manual operations, Snow said.
The $10.3 billion takeover of Philadelphia-based Conrail by CSX and
Norfolk Southern, now scheduled for June 1, has come under scrutiny
because
of the Union Pacific problems.
Snow likened the adverse effects from the computer shutdown and other,
unforeseen problems to those of ``a freak ice storm that slows the
railroads for a little while.''
The Union Pacific gridlock in the West and Midwest lasted several
months
and caused major delivery delays. It spawned several lawsuits by
shippers
and a drive in Congress to give federal regulators more oversight
over
the
rail industry.
Norfolk Southern spokeswoman Susan Terpay said her company had
contingency
and backup plans to address problems as they occurred.
Teams from Conrail, CSX and Norfolk Southern will spend the next
several
weeks testing their computer systems and running through scenarios that
could cause problems.
The deal, approved by the federal Surface Transportation Board last
summer, is the most complex and most extensive rail transaction in U.S.
history, covering nearly 45,000 miles of tracks among the three
railroads.
CRTS Update #03-26
Tuesday, March 23rd, 1999 at 20:00 EST
Trains crash in Momence
Union Pacific, Conrail freights collide, derail
By Janet Cremer
MOMENCE - Just 11 miles east of the site of the fatal Amtrak collision
last week in Bourbonnais, an eastbound Conrail freight train collided
with a southbound Union Pacific early this morning in Momence, derailing
both, and spilling diesel fuel into a nearby creek.
Three people, including both engineers, were taken to Riverside Medical
Center for treatment of minor injuries. A third person, a crewman from
Union Pacific, also suffered minor injuries, said railroad officials.
Conrail Engineer Tim Norred of the Kankakee area, and conductor Dan
Pickering of Bourbonnais were at Riverside Medical Center this morning
under observation. Hospital spokesmen said both would likely be released
this afternoon.
A third person, William Smith, whose address was not available at
presstime, was treated and released from Riverside this morning.
Those injured reportedly had only cuts and bruises, according to
hospital spokesman Mike Silgen.
The accident happened at 7 a.m. at Railroad Avenue and 6th Street on the
city's northeast side. Both trains were moving at the time and hit at
about a 45-degree angle at the diamond crossing, said Ron Hildebrand, a
Conrail spokesman.
''Our engine ran into the side of their train,'' Hildebrand said. ''Who
had the right-of-way is not known.''
The impact resulted in the derailment of two Conrail engines and 13
Union Pacific cars and two engines.
After the collision, the lead Conrail locomotive was on its side and a
second that followed was leaning, followed by four derailed cars,
Hildebrand said. The Conrail engines were pulling 60 cars total, he
said.
James Coulter of Momence, who lives near the crash, said that he helped
pull a Conrail engineer from the wreckage. He said the Conrail engine
was on its side when he stepped on the top and pulled open the door,
pulling the engineer to safety.
''He just seemed dazed and confused,'' he said. Coulter said he walked
the man to a safe by the time paramedics arrived.
A small fire was also reported, said Momence retired Fire Chief Jim
LaMotte, who was handling media questions. LaMotte said the fire was in
one of the Union Pacific freight cars which contained motor and
transmission parts. The fire, he said, was quickly extinguished by
Momence firefighters.
Early reports were that a couple of the Conrail cars were carrying
hazardous materials which were to be hauled away from the site by
Conrail. Nothing leaked, however, police at the scene said.
A foam truck from Mobil Chemical in Joliet was also called to the scene.
The impact of a derailed car gouged a hole in a mammoth grain bin at the
Orr Elevator along the Union Pacific tracks. The bin was said to be
filled with corn.
Union Pacific workers on the scene said that there appeared to be no
signal malfunction.
Conrail Union spokesman for the conductors Dale Burkhalter said that
during that time of day the signal is hard to see since the sun is
rising directly over the tracks. He added that Norred is a two-year
engineer.
The Conrail train was en route from Kankakee to Elkhart, Ind.
Burkhalter also said that crews are ''overworked and understaffed'' from
Kankakee and that may have contributed to the mishap.
Untold gallons of diesel fuel spilled from the Conrail engine into a
creek that runs parallel with the Union Pacific tracks, just two blocks
north of the Kankakee River.
''Our main concern right now is the diesel fuel,'' said Momence Police
Chief Steve Cromwell.
Triangle Construction and Azzerelli were called out to deliver
dumptrucks of sand to help dam up the ditch. In the meantime a temporary
boom was placed across the 10- foot wide ditch to hold back the fuel.
Area farmers also came out in droves, delivering truck loads of straw,
also to hold back the fuel.
Hildebrand said track speed at that point was 45 mph, though he didn't
know how fast either train was traveling.
''There's quite a mess out there, with debris all around,'' said
LaMotte. ''It's not a real hazardous situation.''
Gene Smith and Erika Schneider, who both live near the scene, said that
the derailment made a loud noise and drew them both outside.
''My dog just went crazy when she heard it,'' said Ms. Schneider.
The National Transportation Safety Board headquartered in Washington was
called to the scene.
Journal writer Rochelle Simpson also contributed to this article.
CRTS Update #02-52
Saturday, February 27th, 1999 at 20:35 EST
Conrail's Port Richmond Grain Elevator to be Razed Sunday, Feb. 28;
Interstate 95 to be Closed in Area Beginning at 7:50 a.m.
PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 25 -- Demolition experts will use controlled
explosives Sunday to remove the upper portion of the former grain
elevator
at Conrail's Port Richmond rail freight facilities. The detonation will
require the closing of I-95 between Girard Avenue and Bridge Street, as
well as local streets. The detonation is scheduled for about 8 a.m.
(Note to Editors: An advisory with information about the news media
viewing area for Sunday follows this news release. The Philadelphia
Police
Department has issued a separate news release detailing I-95 and local
street closing information.)
The main public viewing location will be at the corner of Allegheny and
Delaware avenues. After 7:30 a.m., access to this area can only be
gained by going south on Delaware Avenue from Castor Avenue or Venango
Street.
Only the upper 135 feet of the 245-foot tall structure will be removed
Sunday morning. The remainder of the heavily reinforced concrete
structure
will be demolished using conventional methods. Winzinger, Inc., of
Philadelphia and Hainesport, N.J., is Conrail's contractor for the
demolition project.
Most of Conrail's Port Richmond property remains in active use to serve
the freight transportation needs of shippers along this section of the
Philadelphia waterfront. The 200-acre Port Richmond site is used by
shippers of various bulk commodities, including molasses, caustic soda,
scrap metal, construction and paving materials, and petrochemicals.
Conrail's tracks in Port Richmond must be used to access other nearby
rail
freight users, including the Tioga Marine Terminal. In addition, Conrail
operates a repair shop on the property where track maintenance equipment
and company motor vehicles are maintained.
The former Farmer's Exchange grain terminal included both storage silos
and the workhouse/elevator structure, where grain was transferred to
conveyors leading to the terminal's piers for loading on vessels for
export. Winzinger began demolishing the 110 concrete silos last year
with
conventional wrecking equipment. Each of the concrete silos was
approximately
17-feet in diameter and 115-feet high.
The Reading Railroad Company, one of Conrail's six predecessor
railroads,
built the grain storage and transfer facility in 1927 to handle grain
exports. The last grain exports were handled in the mid-1970s. The
facility briefly served as an export terminal for anthracite fines to
Korea
until the mid-1980s.
CRTS Update #02-42
Monday, February 22nd, 1999 at 20:25 EST
Officials see boom after rail breakup
The goal is 2,700 jobs after competitive freight service arrives this
year. Tough problems remain.
By Henry J. Holcomb
City and port officials have grand plans to build a job-creating
economic boom around the competitive rail freight service they have been
promised will arrive this summer with the breakup of Conrail.
Right now, the city and port authority are negotiating on a range of
issues -- including financing new rail facilities and forming marketing
partnerships with the railroads -- all designed to persuade companies to
move manufacturing and distribution businesses to the region.
Manuel N. Stamatakis, chairman of the Delaware River Port Authority, and
other key players profess optimism about pulling all this off -- and
about producing 2,700 jobs in the near future and many more down the
road.
But they acknowledge that the job is far more difficult than some
expected, and that the hoped-for benefits still could be lost.
"Lots of details have surfaced that need to get worked out," Stamatakis
said last week.
Most of these issues are related to the very thing the local officials
hope to exploit -- competition.
The city and the port authority are doing things to make sure that all
three railroads that will serve the region -- CSX, Norfolk Southern and
Canada's CP Rail -- have a strong opportunity to serve customers here.
The railroads, meanwhile, are doing what railroads do -- plotting to get
a competitive advantage over each other.
Archrivals CSX and Norfolk Southern fought hard to buy Conrail. When
their struggle ended in a stalemate, they compromised on a breakup plan,
and jointly paid $10.3 billion -- $115 per share in cash, the most ever
paid for a railroad. With that high purchase price and
higher-than-expected breakup transition costs, they have restless
shareholders to please.
The acquisition, as approved by the federal government last summer,
assured that Philadelphia's seaport and most of its industrial sites
would have competitive access to both railroads.
Each company has sought to interpret parts of that agreement to its own
advantage.
CSX and Norfolk Southern recently settled their most serious
Philadelphia-area dispute -- over access to a key rail yard -- that
Norfolk Southern said threatened to limit its access to key seaport
terminals.
But other problems remain.
At the moment, the railroads are focused on the details of taking over
Conrail, the Philadelphia freight railroad that was established more
than two decades ago to replace six bankrupt railroads.
Each must take over its piece of Conrail during the Memorial Day
weekend, without a rail-service collapse.
Major disruptions would surely trigger a revolt by shippers, still
simmering over the massive delays and extended service interruptions
that followed Union Pacific's 1996 takeover of Southern Pacific. That
would persuade the Congress to reregulate railroads, railroaders and
shippers say.
Once the breakup tasks are finished, if things go as planned, the
Philadelphia area will for the first time have competitive freight rail
service -- with the lower rates that competition brings -- to virtually
every market east of the Mississippi River as well as improved service
to Canada and the west.
The muscular industrial-development departments of both CSX and Norfolk
Southern will soon be enticing companies to relocate on long-vacant
sites along track they are acquiring from Conrail.
"We could light up this area," Alexander H. Jordan, a corporate affairs
manager for Norfolk Southern, said last week.
The new rail service, along with improvements on the waterfront, could
also make Philadelphia a key military supply port.
"If that happens, we could really have a powerhouse operation,"
Stamatakis said.
If the remaining issues can be worked out, the port authority and the
Philadelphia Industrial Development Corp., the city's economic
development unit, have plans to help both railroads improve facilities
in ways they hope will attract business.
Those plans include loans to build badly needed new yards near the
waterfront in South Philadelphia -- for CSX at Conrail's Greenwich Yard
and for Norfolk Southern at the old Philadelphia Navy Base.
To gain a competitive advantage, CSX has already begun work, with its
own money, on its $15 million Greenwich Yard intermodal facility, which
will be equipped to transfer cargo in truck-size containers between
trains and trucks. It will replace CSX's obsolete and congested CSX
Snyder Avenue Yard.
Craig Lewis, Norfolk Southern's Philadelphia-based vice president for
corporate affairs, was in Roanoake, Va., on Wednesday and Thursday to
speed up work on his company's proposed deal with the port authority.
As envisioned now, the port authority would build and operate an
intermodal yard for Norfolk Southern. It would be on 100 acres of the
old Mustin Field Naval Air Station at the eastern end of the old Navy
Base. The Kvaerner Shipyard is being built at the west end of the base.
The cost of the rail yard would be covered by lease payments from
Norfolk Southern, Stamatakis said.
"In return, we have agreed to take the lead responsibility for marketing
the remaining area on the east end of the base to industrial users,"
Lewis said.
Norfolk Southern would build other rail facilities on about 110 acres
adjacent to the intermodal yard, north of the Mustin Field runway, "that
would be a focal point for industrial development," Lewis said.
Stamatakis said the new yards would generate 2,700-plus jobs in the
region soon after the new yards are in operation.
But he said the real job growth would come from the firms drawn to the
old Navy Base by Norfolk Southern.
For that to happen, the city and port authority say they must build a
road across land to be owned by Norfolk's arch rival, CSX.
This road, to be built with federal money, would connect the Norfolk
Southern area on the Navy Base with Columbus Boulevard (formerly
Delaware Avenue) and its maritime terminals. It could restrict future
use of the now-idle Pier 124, which is being taken over by CSX.
"We're being asked to give up something we just paid for to help a
competitor," lamented CSX spokesman Bob Sullivan.
There are similar concerns about another element of the grand plan -- a
new terminal for a new generation of high-speed ocean cargo ships.
The port authority invested $7 million, added to more than $3 million
put up by two local maritime businessmen, Thomas J. Holt Sr. and Dennis
Colgan Jr., to help complete design of those ships by FastShip Inc. In
response to that, the company moved to Philadelphia and agreed to make
the city the only American port for the transatlantic service it will
offer if the company can come up with money to build the ships.
The port authority initially planned to put FastShip on the Navy Base,
where it now wants to build the Norfolk Southern yard. It wants to put
FastShip on a portion of CSX's Greenwich Yard.
Because Norfolk Southern has a much faster route between Philadelphia
and Chicago, Norfolk Southern would get most of any rail business
FastShip might generate. So, as on the road issue, CSX questions why it
should give up land it might need later to help a rival.
Even if those thorny issues get worked out, there is still a lingering
problem with the Navy's bureaucracy. The Pentagon decided to close the
base eight years ago. The base's shipyard finished its last project,
overhaul of the aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy, in 1995. With the
playing of Taps and lowering of the flag, the base officially closed on
Sept. 27, 1996.
Despite high-level promises in 1997 that "only three or four technical
issues" remain, the Navy still hasn't turned the property over to the
city. So there is still military-like security at the gates, hampering
trucks going to the new CP Rail bulk cargo transfer yard on the west
side of the base and other new tenants.
It has also made it difficult for prospective developers to visit the
area. On Thursday morning, for example, Thomas G. Washbon, an industrial
development manager for Norfolk Southern, was quite rudely turned away
from the gate nearest the area his company is proposing to help the city
develop.
CRTS Update #02-07
Saturday, February 6th, 1999 at 15:45 EST
RADIO FREQUENCY CHANGES:
Effective January 21st, 1999, the following radio frequency changes
took place on the Indianapolis Division:
*Toledo Branch/Scottslawn Secondary - Now channel 3 (formerly channel 4)
*Buckeye Yard - Now 160.920 (formerly channel 3)
*Buckeye Van Site - Now channel 3 (formerly 160.920)
Also, on the Albany Division's Hudson Line, crews now change from
channel 1 to channel 2 at CP-141 instead of at milepost 130.
Channel 1 = 160.800
Channel 2 = 161.070
Channel 3 = 160.860
Channel 4 = 160.980
CRTS Update #01-72
Tuesday, January 26th, 1999 at 11:30 EST
PHILADELPHIA, Jan. 25th, 1999 -- Timothy T. O'Toole, President and
Chief Executive Officer of Consolidated Rail Corp. (Conrail) issued the
following statement today:
"Along with their families and coworkers, we mourn the tragic losses
of
four of our colleagues this month in accidents. We need to learn from
each of
these events to make sure similar accidents do not happen again.
"Despite our achievements last year, when we were the only major
U.S.
railroad without a single on-the-job fatality, these sad events remind
us that
we can never let down our guard when it comes to safety. I am asking
everyone
at Conrail to rededicate themselves to safety with increased vigilance,
so
that we can keep these tragedies from being repeated."
CRTS Update #01-70
Tuesday, January 26th, 1999 at 11:00 EST
Questions over mergers and safety rise after four deaths aboard Conrail
BY RIP WATSON
Questions about the relationship between rail mergers and safety again
are being raised in the aftermath of four on-duty employee deaths at
Conrail Inc.
The United Transportation Union is pressing the Federal Railroad
Administration for an investigation into the circumstances surrounding
three separate fatal incidents between Jan. 14 and Jan. 22 at the
railroad that was acquired by CSX Corp. and Norfolk Southern Corp. last
year.
Efforts by UTU to step up the pressure on Conrail are identical to union
efforts in the summer of 1997 to force changes in safety practices on
Union Pacific Railroad.
CSX and NS are to take over their respective portions of Conrail on June
1. Until then, the railroad is being operated independently. Prior to
their acquisition, both carriers submitted detailed plans meant to
enhance post-merger safety and avoid a repetition of past problems.
A string of accidents that killed nine persons on the UP in less than
two months triggered an FRA safety audit and compliance proceeding in
which the agency concluded that UP's merger with Southern Pacific eroded
safety on that railroad.
The latest request came in a letter sent Monday by UTU president Charles
Little to FRA Administrator Jolene Molitoris.
In his letter, Mr. Little said "four deaths in days demands that fast
action be taken to intensely investigate safety and training procedures
at Conrail. These incidents are every bit as serious as the UP problem,
and deserve the same scrutiny."
"The number of accidents within such a short time span ... is of such a
character that it must be immediately learned whether there is a
systemic operating deficiency at Conrail that degrades safety," Mr.
Little wrote. "Our members and the public are entitled to know now the
status of operations on Conrail."
FRA spokeswoman Pam Barry said: "On the face of it, there is no obvious
linkage between these collisions."
She said FRA will take a more detailed look at the safety issues in
light of the accidents, including a Friday meeting in Philadelphia that
involves agency safety officials and representatives of NS, CSX and
Conrail.
That meeting will review issues such as operational, training and
supervision issues raised by the acquisition of Conrail, she said. After
that session ends, FRA will brief rail union representatives.
In the most recent accident on Jan. 22, a Conrail employee and UTU
member in the Buffalo area died in a derailment.
Two more rail workers, a UTU member a member of the Brotherhood of
Locomotive Engineers, died Jan. 17 near Toledo, Ohio. Three days before,
a UTU member working in the rail yard at Port Newark, NJ was killed.
CRTS Update #01-66
Sunday, January 24th, 1999 at 17:15 EST
Broken train wheel suspect in derailment
Investigators say prior damage may have caused freight cars to jump
track
MICHAEL P. BRUNO
NELLISTON -- Investigators believe a broken wheel on one of the freight
cars may have caused the train derailment of 33 cars carrying flammable
liquid, a Conrail spokesman said Saturday.
The derailment about 6 p.m. Thursday forced more than 150 people to be
evacuated from their homes, but all were allowed back by 6 p.m.
Saturday,
said spokesman Robert Libkind.
"On a preliminary basis, it appears the cause was a broken wheel --
broken
before the accident -- on a freight car,'' said Libkind. Investigators
don't believe human error or problems with the heavily used track
contributed to the accident. The wheel has been sent to a Conrail lab in
Altoona, Pa. for further examination.
The train carrying propane, butane and other hazardous and flammable
chemicals was traveling eastbound from Niagara Falls to Selkirk when it
derailed along the banks of the Mohawk River. The accident forced
officials
to close a 75-mile stretch of the New York State Thruway for hours.
Service on the line was expected to resume late Saturday night, Libkind
said. Workers are bringing in about 2,400 feet of panel track, or
prebolted
railroad ties, to create a bypass around the section where the
derailment
occurred, he said.
The bypass, called a shoofly track, will run for about 10 miles, Libkind
said. Though there are two rail lines there, trains in both directions
will
have to slow to 10 mph, with the panel tracks shuttling the trains on
and
off a single track for the 10-mile stretch, he said.
The accident also disrupted Amtrak passenger service between Utica and
Albany, with Amtrak busing people along the route. An Amtrak spokesman
said
normal service would resume today.
Workers have rerailed 22 cars and are attempting to set aside the rest,
Libkind said. They are also focusing on one tanker that leaked propane,
although Libkind said he was unaware of any chemicals seeping into the
river. Workers conducted a controlled burn of vapors from that tanker
overnight Friday after removing as much of the liquid fuel as possible,
he
said. Another controlled burn lasting a few days will likely be needed,
he
added.
"Through all of this, the number-one concern is taking care of the
safety
situation for everyone -- workers and residents,'' he said.
CRTS Update #01-63
Sunday, January 24th, 1999 at 11:00 EST
NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD
Abstract to Final Report:
Rear-End Collision/Derailment
Conrail
Hummelstown, Pennsylvania
September 29, 1997
This is an abstract from the Safety Board's report and does not include
the Board's rationale for the conclusions, probable cause, and safety
recommendations. Safety Board staff is currently making final revisions
to the report from which the attached conclusions and safety
recommendations have been extracted. The final report and pertinent
safety recommendation letters will be distributed to recommendation
recipients as soon as possible. The attached information is subject to
further review and editing.
ACCIDENT SUMMARY
On September 29, 1997, about 5:45 p.m. eastern daylight time, eastbound
Consolidated Rail Corporation (Conrail) train PIBE-8, consisting of 2
locomotive units and 136 cars, passed a stop and proceed signal at 30
mph and struck the rear locomotive unit of eastbound Conrail train
ENS-103, consisting of 5 locomotive units. Train ENS-103 was stopped at
signal 1081E (milepost 104.2 at control point [CP] Tara) in Hummelstown,
Pennsylvania. Each train was crewed by a conductor and an engineer. The
conductor on train PIBE-8 sustained fatal injuries in the accident. No
other injuries were reported. Damages were estimated at $571,700.
Weather conditions were clear, with bright sunlight and a temperature of
65° F.
The train ENS-103 crew went on duty at 2:30 p.m. at Enola Yard near
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The crew picked up five locomotive units at
the diesel shop and began a trip to Oak Island Yard in Newark, New
Jersey. According to event recorder data, the train had been halted at a
stop signal at 1081E for 28 minutes when the rear-end collision
occurred.
Train PIBE-8 departed Harrisburg about 4:15 p.m. en route to Allentown,
Pennsylvania. As the train approached signal 1061E, the signal was
displaying a stop and proceed (red over red signal aspect) indication.
1 The engineer stated that both he and the conductor observed and called
the signal as "approach medium" (yellow over green signal aspect).
2 The engineer said the train was traveling about 10 mph when he and the
conductor observed the signal; the engineer then allowed the train to
increase speed to about 30 mph, which would have been an appropriate
response to an approach medium signal. He stated that as train PIBE-8
came around the lefthand curve, he observed train ENS-103 stopped at CP
Tara. The train PIBE-8 engineer put his train into emergency braking but
was unable to stop short of train ENS-103.
Post-accident tests revealed that signal 1061E, located about 2 miles
west of signal 1081E, was coded to display a stop and proceed signal.
The tests also confirmed that the signals were properly wired.
Postaccident inspection of signal 1061E revealed that the stop and
proceed signal was out of focus. Rusty water was found in the signal
lens. When viewed from the track, the signal was partially obscured by
tree foliage.
On October 1, 1997, National Transportation Safety Board investigators,
with representatives of the Federal Railroad Administration, the
Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, the United Transportation Union,
and Conrail, used a locomotive to replicate the preaccident events. In
sunny conditions, the test locomotive traveled eastbound toward signal
1061E at the same time of day that the incident occurred. Signal 1061E
was set to display a stop and proceed signal.
When the test locomotive had moved to within about 1,500 feet of signal
1061E, the signal could not be clearly distinguished by persons on the
locomotive. As the locomotive approached the signal more closely, the
top aspect of the signal appeared to be yellow and the bottom aspect
appeared to be green. Eventually, as the locomotive moved still closer
to signal 1061E, the signal aspect could not be distinguished at all.
Persons on the test locomotive variously reported seeing yellow, red,
and green aspects.
The out-of-focus condition of signal 1061E, in combination with the late
afternoon sun shining on the signal face and the water in the lens,
probably made the signal aspect appear to the train PIBE-8 train crew to
be yellow over green instead of its actual display, which was a red over
red aspect. The result was a "phantom signal." A phantom signal is
defined by the Association of American Railroads Signal Manual as "an
aspect displayed by a light signal, different from the aspect intended,
caused by a light from an external source being reflected by the optical
system of the signal."
PROBABLE CAUSE
The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable
cause of the accident was a phantom signal indication that resulted
because the Consolidated Rail Corporation failed to ensure that the
signal aspects displayed could be properly seen by train crews.
1 This indication calls for the train crew to stop and then proceed at
restricted speed.
2 An approach medium indication calls for the train crew to proceed to
the next signal not exceeding medium speed.
CRTS Update #01-58
Saturday, January 23rd, 1999 at 16:10 EST
NORFOLK SOUTHERN TENATIVE LIST OF HARRISBURG DIVISION YARD JOBS:
NS Symbol Terminal Former Conrail Symbol
HM01 Abrams, PA YPAB-01
HM02 Abrams, PA YPAB-02
HM12 Abrams, PA YPAB-22
HM31 Abrams, PA YPAB-12
HA01 Allentown, PA YPEX-A1
HA10 Allentown, PA YPAL-10
HA11 Allentown, PA YPAL-11
HA13 Allentown, PA YPAL-13
HA15 Allentown, PA YPAL-15
HA20 Allentown, PA YPAL-20
HA21 Allentown, PA YPAL-21
HA32 Allentown, PA YPEX-A2
HA25 Allentown, PA YPAL-25
HA40 Allentown, PA YPAL-30
HA41 Allentown, PA YPAL-31
HA43 Allentown, PA YPEX-A3
HA45 Allentown, PA YPAL-35
HA46 Allentown, PA YPAL-36
HA47 Allentown, PA YPAL-37
HA61 Allentown, PA YPAL-R1
HA62 Allentown, PA YPAL-R2
HA63 Allentown, PA YPAL-R3
HA64 Allentown, PA YPAL-R4
HA95 Allentown, PA YMWP-C1
HB02 Baltimore, MD YPBV-02
HB04 Baltimore, MD YPBV-04
HB06 Baltimore, MD YPBV-06
HB08 Baltimore, MD YPBV-08
HB09 Baltimore, MD YPBV-09
HB32 Baltimore, MD YPBV-32
HB34 Baltimore, MD YPBV-34
HB38 Baltimore, MD YPBV-38
HB42 Baltimore, MD YPBV-62
HB44 Baltimore, MD YPBV-64
HB48 Baltimore, MD YPBV-68
HB64 Baltimore, MD YPBV-R1
HB65 Baltimore, MD YPBV-R2
HC10 Croxton, NJ YPCX-10
HC20 Croxton, NJ YPCX-20
HC41 Croxton, NJ YPCX-11
HD01 Edgemoor, DE YPED-01
HD02 Edgemoor, DE YPED-02
HD03 Edgemoor, DE YPED-03
HD31 Edgemoor, DE YPED-30
HE01 Elmira, NY YAEL-01
HF10 Morrisville, PA YPMO-10
HF30 Morrisville, PA YPMO-30
HH02 Harrisburg, PA YPHB-20
HH05 Harrisburg, PA YPHB-25
HH12 Harrisburg, PA YPHB-12
HH13 Harrisburg, PA YPHB-13
HH33 Harrisburg, PA YPHB-33
HH35 Harrisburg, PA YPHB-35
HH36 Harrisburg, PA YPHB-36
HH44 Harrisburg, PA YPHB-64
HH48 Harrisburg, PA YPHB-68
HH59 Harrisburg, PA YPHB-79
HH63 Harrisburg, PA YPHB-R2
HL03 Lebanon, PA YPLE-13
HN11 Northumberland, PA YPNO-11
HO01 Enola, PA YPEE-01
HO11 Enola, PA YPEN-10
HO40 Enola, PA YPEE-03
HO41 Harrisburg, PA YPEH-01
HO42 Enola, PA YPEE-04
HO61 Enola, PA YPEE-R1
HP02 Pottstown, PA YPPT-32
HR05 Reading, PA YPRE-25
HR12 Reading, PA YPRE-12
HR16 Reading, PA YPRE-16
HR25 Reading, PA YPRE-15
HR32 Reading, PA YPRE-32
HR39 Reading, PA YPRE-39
HR45 Reading, PA YPRE-65
HR46 Reading, PA YPRE-66
HR47 Reading, PA YPRE-67
HR48 Reading, PA YPRE-68
HR61 Reading, PA YPRE-R1
HS11 Shiremanstown, PA YPST-11
HS12 Shiremanstown, PA YPST-12
HS31 Shiremanstown, PA YPST-31
HS32 Shiremanstown, PA YPST-32
HV12 Lancaster, PA YPLA-12
HV13 Lancaster, PA YPLA-13
HV25 Lancaster, PA YPLA-25
HV31 Lancaster, PA YPLA-31
HV41 Lancaster, PA YPLA-61
CRTS Update #01-57
Saturday, January 23rd, 1999 at 14:25 EST
NORFOLK SOUTHERN PRELIMINARY LIST OF HARRISBURG DIVISION LOCAL TRAINS:
NS Symbol Terminal Former Conrail Symbol
H01 Binghamton, NY WABH-11
H04 Baltimore, MD WPBV-20
H08 Campbell Hall, NY WACH-01
H09 Campbell Hall, NY WACH-03
H13 Ithaca, NY WAIT-01
H14 Olean, NY WAOL-01
H16 Olean, NY WAOL-02
H19 Olean, NY WAOL-04
H20 Edgemoor, DE WPED-10
H21 Lancaster, PA WPLA-01
H22 Lancaster, PA WPLA-02
H23 Lancaster, PA WPLA-03
H24 Hershey, PA WPHE-02
H25 Abrams, PA WPAB-76
H27 Lancaster, PA WPLA-75
H28 Lancaster, PA WPLA-80
H29 Lancaster, PA WPLA-81
H30 Lancaster, PA WPLA-85
H31 Lebanon, PA WPLE-33
H32 Hagerstown, MD WPHT-05
H33 Hagerstown, MD WPHT-01
H34 Hagerstown, MD WPHT-03
H35 Newark, DE WPNK-20
H37 Newark, DE WPNK-24
H40 Newark, DE WPNK-26
H41 Newark, DE WPNK-28
H42 Harrington, DE WPHA-40
H43 Harrington, DE WPHA-19
H44 Northumberland, PA WPNO-04
H45 Northumberland, PA WPNO-06
H46 Northumberland, PA WPNO-08
H47 Reading, PA WPRE-10
H48 Reading, PA WPRE-22
H50 Reybold, DE WPRY-15
H51 Reybold, DE WPRY-16
H53 Reybold, DE WPRY-13
H57 Seaford, DE WPSE-14
H58 Shiremanstown, PA WPST-01
H59 Shiremanstown, PA WPST-03
H61 Harrington, DE WPHA-21
H63 Baltimore, MD WPBV-01
H64 Baltimore, MD WPBV-10
H65 Allentown, PA WPAL-18
H66 Allentown, PA WPAL-19
H71 Allentown, PA WPAL-16
H74 Allentown, PA WPAL-10
H75 Allentown, PA WPAL-12
H78 Allentown, PA WPAL-01
H83 Abrams, PA WPAB-24
H84 Abrams, PA WPAB-34
H85 Abrams, PA WPAB-20
H92 Delmar, DE WPDE-01
H93 Delmar, DE WPDE-07
H96 York, PA WPYO-35
H97 Hazelton, PA WPHZ-10
H98 Hazelton, PA WPHZ-11
H99 Hazelton, PA WPHZ-20
H94 Dover, DE WPDD-16
CRTS Update #01-51
Friday, January 22nd, 1999 at 07:00 EST
MOMENT OF SILENCE:
At noon EST on Friday, January 22nd, 1999 various crafts within the
Dearborn Division will arrange to stop all movements and work in advance
at a safe location and remain stopped for two minutes of silent
reflection in honor of our fellow railroaders who recently lost their
lives at Stryker, OH. All work will resume at 12:02 EST.
CRTS Update #01-47
Thursday, January 21st, 1999 at 21:20 EST
Black box' recorder yields data in train crash as inquiry proceeds
BY DAVID PATCH
NAPOLEON - Useful data has been recovered from an event recorder aboard
the front locomotive of a Conrail train that slammed into the rear of a
second train early Sunday near Stryker, killing two crewmen on board, a
federal official said yesterday.
Accident investigator Jay Kivowitz briefs reporters on the rail crash
investigation. But Jay Kivowitz, who is leading the National
Transportation Safety Board's investigation of the accident,
revealed no details about the data in the so-called ``black box,'' nor
did he disclose any other developments in the inquiry.
``All the parties are working very hard not to miss anything,'' said Mr.
Kivowitz, the investigator in charge of a team of safety board, Federal
Railroad Administration, and railroad management and labor
representatives.
Engineer Roger Bell, 57, of Oregon, and conductor Raymond Corell, 52, of
Angola, Ind., died when their Chicago-bound train hauling truck trailers
and containers struck the rear of another Chicago-bound trailer train
near Williams County Road 19 about 2 a.m. Sunday.
Wreckage spilled onto a parallel track, derailing a third train that was
traveling in the opposite direction. The two-person crews on the front
train and the passing train were not injured.
Mr. Kivowitz said Monday that formal safety board findings on the
accident and its cause may take as long as nine months to complete.
Information gathered as part of the investigation will become public
once a report is prepared for the safety board's review, he said.
The investigator said he did not know when a preliminary report will be
issued.
''There's a lot of information being developed,'' Mr. Kivowitz said.
''This really is a very big puzzle. We're going to take all these little
pieces and see how they all fit together.''
Event recorders were recovered from all three locomotives that were
pulling the train Mr. Bell and Mr. Corell were operating Sunday morning,
but the collision destroyed one of them. Mr. Kivowitz had said Monday
that another recorder, from the front locomotive, was in uncertain
condition, but yesterday he announced that its manufacturer had opened
it successfully and retrieved data that appeared to be undamaged.
Officials weren't sure how useful the third locomotive's event recorder
will be.
Railroad event recorders show a locomotive's speed and the position of
its throttle and brake controls. Such information shows how an engineer
was driving a train.
Another of the puzzle pieces is the operation of a signal system along
the Conrail tracks that is supposed to prevent train collisions.
The signals function similarly to a series of stoplights with occasional
traffic cops, although there are some key differences.
Like many other busy main lines, the Conrail route west from Toledo
toward Chicago uses a system called Centralized Traffic Control, under
which train dispatchers electronically control track switches and
signals at certain points along the tracks. Trains may not pass a
dispatcher-controlled point unless a signal more favorable than ``stop''
is displayed or the crew receives specific permission from the
dispatcher.
In between those controlled points are automatic ``intermediate''
signals display lights that tell trains whether the track ahead is
occupied. By closing an electrical circuit along a section of the track,
a train causes a signal behind it to display a red light, and causes the
second signal behind it to display yellow.
When neither of the next two track sections past an intermediate signal
is occupied, then the signal displays green, which advises the train
crew that the train may proceed at maximum speed. Some systems use
different methods, such as rows of lights rather than colored lights, to
convey the same information.
While railroad operating rules allow a train to pass an ``intermediate''
signal displaying a red light, they may do so only at a very slow speed
- typically no faster than 15 mph - and in most cases must stop before
proceeding.
The collision site Sunday was between two ``intermediate'' signals. If
the signal system was functioning properly, then the train that came up
from behind had passed at least one yellow signal and at least one red
signal before colliding with the train ahead.
Mr. Kivowitz said signal tests still were in progress yesterday. But he
said that initial tests revealed no problems, and that the two crewmen
of the train in front reported nothing unusual about the signals they
had seen. The investigator said Monday that the train in front had
slowed down because of yellow signals caused by other trains ahead of
it.
Signal systems are designed to display red lights if their circuitry
fails, but on rare occasion a relay failure can cause a signal to
display a ``false'' green.
A related issue is the possibility that dense fog reported in the
Stryker area may have impaired the second train crew's ability to see
the signals.
Mr. Kivowitz remarked, however, that even if it was foggy Sunday
morning, ``Fog is certainly nothing new in the railroad industry.''
Some Conrail tracks, along with certain tracks owned by other railroads,
have additional circuitry that allows a signal display to be transmitted
directly into the cab of a locomotive.
Such ``cab signal'' systems reduce the potential role that fog can play
in railroad operations, but neither the Conrail line west of Toledo nor
any other railroad line in northwest Ohio or southeast Michigan is so
equipped. Federal regulations require cab signals only where trains
travel at speeds of 80 mph or faster, while the top speed limit on
Conrail's main line is 79 mph and freight trains' maximum is 60.
CSX Transportation Corp. and Norfolk Southern Corp. require their train
engineers to announce signals they observe over their trains' radios,
ostensibly to maintain the crews' alertness and to advise other trains
in the area of their presence and progress.
But Conrail has no such rule.
Bob Libkind, a Conrail spokesman, said that if all trains operating on
the Toledo-Chicago main line, which tracks scores of trains each day,
were to announce their signals, other radio communication would be
impossible.
Mr. Kivowitz said tapes from the Conrail radio system have been
impounded and will be transcribed and scrutinized for any clues they may
provide about the accident.
CRTS Update #01-40
Wednesday, January 20th, 1999 at 20:30 EST
Norfolk Southern and CSX Announce Readiness for June 1 Conrail
Transaction Closing Date
NORFOLK and RICHMOND, VA -- Norfolk Southern Corporation (NYSE: NSC)
and CSX Corporation (NYSE: CSX) jointly announced today that they will
close the Conrail transaction on June 1, 1999, and begin operating
their respective portions of Conrail's routes and assets.
With the necessary customer service planning, capital improvement
projects, employee training and labor implementing agreements now
largely complete, and with computer systems integration testing under
way, the June 1 date provides ample time for ensuring that post-Closing
operations are seamless for rail customers and safe for employees and
the communities that the railroads serve.
"Our heightened readiness will give customers, stockholders,
employees and communities a high degree of confidence that our expanded
system will meet their expectations for safe, reliable rail service,"
said David R. Goode, Norfolk Southern chairman, president and chief
executive officer. "We will avoid problems of the kind that could cause
inconvenience to the public and thereby compromise expected operating
and financial synergies. We want to get things right - from the start."
John W. Snow, CSX chairman and chief executive officer, said, "We
have been consistent in our definition of a successful integration, and
we have gone to extraordinary lengths over the past 15 months to assure
success. Any other approach would have been shortsighted. We are now
within a few months of beginning the new era of railroading in the
East, and we look forward to the high prospects it brings our
customers, shareholders, employees and the public."
After Closing, Norfolk Southern will operate about 7,200 miles of
Conrail routes, creating a 21,600-mile rail system serving 22 states in
the East, as well as in the District of Columbia and the Province of
Ontario, Canada. CSX will operate approximately 4,000 miles of Conrail
routes, resulting in a 22,300-mile rail system serving 23 states east
of the Mississippi, the District of Columbia and Montreal and Ontario,
Canada.
Norfolk Southern Corporation, a Virginia-based holding company
with headquarters in Norfolk, owns a major freight railroad, Norfolk
Southern Railway, which will operate its portion of the Conrail
properties.
CSX Corporation, based in Richmond, Va., is an international
transportation company providing rail, intermodal, container-shipping
and contract logistics services worldwide.
CRTS Update #01-35
Tuesday, January 19th, 1999 at 14:45 EST
Norfolk Southern and Amtrak Discuss Running Freight on High-Speed Route
By DANIEL MACHALABA
In a move that could speed freight shipments and notch up rail
competition in
the Northeast, Norfolk Southern Corp. is negotiating with Amtrak to run
freight trains on Amtrak's high-speed New York-to-Washington passenger
route,
according to officials on both sides.
The plans are a sign that Norfolk Southern intends to move aggressively
to win
freight business when it divides Conrail Inc. with CSX Corp. as early as
March. The $10 billion carve-up of Conrail, the largest railroad merger
in
history, gives Norfolk 58% of Conrail's potentially lucrative Northeast
rail
system.
Use of the Amtrak corridor, which is shorter and more direct than other
tracks, would allow Norfolk Southern to offer faster schedules for more
than
$5 billion in annual shipments from the South and Midwest to the New
York
area, the nation's largest consuming market. The move would free up
track
space and ease congestion on the Conrail routes that Norfolk Southern
will use
to move shipments to the area. Norfolk Southern is also negotiating to
use
Amtrak's route between Philadelphia and Harrisburg, Pa.
The plan would also represent a revenue boost for Amtrak, which is under
a
federal mandate to improve its financial performance and operate without
federal subsidies by the end of 2002.
But there are major risks for Amtrak, which is trying to boost its
on-time
performance. Addition of freight trains to the busy Amtrak Northeast
Corridor,
which already handles hundreds of Amtrak and commuter trains every day,
could
lead to disruptions and delays for passengers.
Major Issues to Resolve
Norfolk Southern, Norfolk, Va., and Amtrak, Washington, still have major
issues to resolve and a deal could still fall apart, according to
individuals
close to the discussions. Spokesmen for the companies, while
acknowledging the
talks, declined to discuss details.
Nevertheless, the plan comes as the railroad industry reaches an
important
juncture. After a string of big mergers and service failures, railroads
have
come under attack by government, and more importantly, their own
customers.
"Their future is mostly in their own hands," said Anthony Hatch, an
independent transportation analyst in New York. "Either railroads
improve
service and grow and make good on their huge investment, or fall into a
state
of permanent regression and contraction."
Under the plan, Norfolk Southern would operate trains for its Triple
Crown
subsidiary on Amtrak routes connecting northern New Jersey with
Washington,
Philadelphia and Harrisburg, Pa. Norfolk Southern wouldn't actually send
its
trains into Manhattan but would unload and load the trains in terminals
nearby
in New Jersey. To minimize delays, Norfolk Southern would be allowed to
operate freight trains on the Amtrak corridors only during off hours,
between
10 p.m. and 6 a.m. What's more, Norfolk Southern trains would consist of
specialized units that are more compatible with high-speed operations.
Expected Time Savings
As an example of the time savings for rail customers, a train that now
takes
32 to 34 hours to travel between Atlanta and northern New Jersey would
take 26
to 28 hours. By saving about six hours for shippers, Norfolk Southern
hopes to
better compete with truckers.
This isn't the only sign that Norfolk Southern is gearing up to compete
for
freight in the Northeast. Last week, Norfolk Southern said it would
become the
chief user of a sprawling new rail-freight terminal that will emerge on
Bethlehem Steel Corp.'s old steelmaking complex in Bethlehem, Pa. The
new
terminal will serve blossoming freight shipments in Pennsylvania's
Lehigh
Valley as well as be strategically located for the New York and
Philadelphia
markets.
CSX, Richmond, Va., which is going to operate 42% of Conrail, said it
already
invested more than $220 million to expand its tracks through Indiana and
Ohio
into a high-speed route to the Northeast. In addition, it is investing
in
construction and expansion of freight terminals in key cities in the
Midwest
and the Northeast.
Plans to carve up Conrail followed a bitter four-month battle in 1996
and 1997
that pitted Norfolk Southern against CSX. Although CSX initially
proposed to
buy all of Conrail, Norfolk Southern countered with its own offer, and
the two
ended up splitting Conrail's 12,000-mile rail network.
CRTS Update #01-28
Sunday, January 17th, 1999 at 20:00 EST
DERAILMENT UPDATE:
It now appears that the chronology of the Byran, OH wreck was as
follows;
At 01:58 EST westbound intermodal train TV-7-15 with SD80MAC's
4129/4115 was stopped on track one at CP-340, eastbound empty unit
coiled steel train MGL-16-16 with GP15-1's 1697 and 1668 crossed over
from track one to track two in front of train TV-7-15. After MGL-16-16
cleared, the dispatcher gave train TV-7-16 the signal to depart, the
train was beginning to accelerate westbound when train Mail-9-15 with
C40-8W 6096 and C40-8's 6049 and 6031 plowed into the rear of train
TV-7-15 derailing the three rear cars on train TV-7-15, KCS 9063, TTAX
77016, and CP 505287. The force of the impact imbedded the lead
locomotive C40-8W 6096 into the rear car of train TV-7-15, propelled the
second unit C40-8 6049 over the low profile of the empty coiled steel
cars, and the third unit C40-8 6031 into train MGL-16-16 passing on the
adjacent track derailing 19 cars on train MGL-16-16. The collision also
lead to the derailment of the head ten cars on train Mail-9-16, TTEX
353270, KTTX 150957, TTAX 653940, WTTX 604186, TTAX 553890,
TTOX 121105,
TTEX 353277, TTAX 554528, DTTX 427258, and
TTAX 78057. Unfortunately,
both the engineer and conductor on train
Mail-9-16 were killed in the
accident.
Current Detour Situation:
Amtrak 29-16 detoured via CSXT from Toledo, OH to Fostoria, OH to
Chicago, IL
Amtrak 49-16 detoured via CSXT from Toledo, OH to Fostoria, OH to
Chicago, IL
Amtrak 43-17 was terminated at Pittsburgh, PA
Amtrak 44-17 originated at Pittsburgh, PA
Amtrak 30-17 is scheduled to operate via Detroit, MI
Amtrak 48-17 is scheduled to operate via Detroit, MI
Mail-8-17 was last reported CP-Hick, IN at 12:20 CST
5523/6792 (via CSXT (B&O)
Mail-8M-17 was last reported at CP-100, IN at 15:22 EST
6742/5087/6280 (via CXST (B&O)
Train Mail-9X-17 was last reported at CP-Nasby, OH at 17:08 EST
6613/6070 (via Detroit)
Train TVLA-6 was last reported at CP-Cowling, MI at 18:00 EST
6003/6130/6278/5608
Train TV-1-16 was last reported at CP-Big Run, OH at 17:55 EST
6579/6202/6856 (via Fort Wayne Line)
Train TV-1H was last reported terminating at Canton, OH at 09:18 EST
5555/2567 (via Fort Wayne Line)
Train TV-7-16 was last reported at CP-17, OH at 17:40 EST
5515/5552/6449 (to CSXT at Greenwich, OH)
Train TV-9-16 was last reported at CP-37, OH at 16:52 EST
SP 9710/5540/5627/6139/6524/6666 (to CSXT at Greenwich, OH)
Train TV-10-17 was last reported at Willow Run, MI at 14:27 EST
5633/5598/6198 (via Detroit, MI)
Train TV-10B-17 was last reported at CP-501, IN at 11:46 CST
6437/5084 (via CSXT to Toledo, OH via Fostoria, OH)
Train TV-11-16 was last reported at CP-Colsan, OH at 14:37 EST
5520/5085/6478 (via Fort Wayne Line)
Train TV-12-17 was last reported at Detroit-Livernois, MI at 17:46 EST
6231/6636/UP 2477
Train TV-12X-17 was last reported at Detroit-Livernois, MI at 17:57 EST
6242/6279
Train TV-13-16 (combined with train Mail-9H-16 at Toledo, OH)
was last reported at Toledo, OH at 16:29 EST
6257/6769/6028 (via Detroit, MI)
Train TV-14-16 was last reported at Detroit-Livernois, MI at 17:50 EST
5601/6281/BN 6867
Additional Complications:
Train TV-12X has derailed at the Norfolk Southern diamond at Ecorse, MI
Train TV-13's power has died and the power off train EJDL-7 is currently
enroute to assist.
CRTS Update #01-14
Tuesday, January 12th, 1999 at 17:45 EST
Railroads to Become First Industry to Publish Weekly Performance
Measures
WASHINGTON, Jan. 12th, 1999 -- Freight railroads will become the
nation's
first industry to publish weekly performance measures beginning tomorrow
(January 13). In addition to U.S. Class I railroads, the reports will
also be
filed by Canada's two major railroads.
"Railroad customers told us they wanted more information and they wanted
it
updated frequently," said Edward R. Hamberger, President and Chief
Executive
Officer of the Association of American Railroads (AAR). "During a series
of
regional meetings with our customers during the last half of 1998, we
promised
to provide that information. We will make this data available every week
as
part of our commitment to improve communications between ourselves and
our
customers."
The information will be provided through a series of four performance
measures
that will serve as indicators of how well traffic is moving through a
railroad's system. Rail customers will have easy, convenient access to
the
data from the Internet.
The four measures being published by the railroads are:
* Total Cars On Line;
* Average Train Speed;
* Average Terminal Dwell Time;
* Freight cars received without a bill of lading.
"Although railroads have long had similar information available for
their own
internal uses, it is unprecedented for them to make it public," Mr.
Hamberger
said. "Rail customers will be able to use that data to determine what is
happening
on each railroad. However," he added, "it would be
inappropriate and
inaccurate
to use the raw data for comparing one railroad's performance
with
another.
"Operating differences among railroads, traffic mix, weather and terrain
affect average train speed, number of cars on line and terminal dwell
time. In
addition, these measurements are not uniformly calculated across the
industry
and are therefore inappropriate for comparison," said Mr. Hamberger.
Railroad customers will be able to access data through the Internet site
of
their primary carrier. Customers will initially see the data from their
primary carrier's report and will also be able to access the data of all
reporting railroads.
Railroads making the data available include all of the Class I railroads
in
the United States as well as Canada's two major railroads: Burlington
Northern
Santa Fe; Canadian National; Canadian Pacific; CSX Transportation;
Illinois
Central; Kansas City Southern; Norfolk Southern; and Union Pacific.
Together
they account for more than 90 percent of all freight rail traffic in the
two
countries.
CRTS Update #01-02
Wednesday, January 6th, 1998 at 19:45 EST
On Track to Transformation
The Conrail Deal May Be the Least of the Changes at CSX.
A Bigger One Is Remaking an Internal Culture.
By Don Phillips
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, January 4, 1999
Sometime in the next few months, Richmond-based CSX
Corp.'s eastern
railroad empire will spread into the heavy shipping
centers and ports of the
Northeast as the corporation takes over almost half of
Philadelphia-based
Conrail.
But a stroll through CSX's rail unit headquarters in
Jacksonville, Fla., might
leave one wondering who took over whom.
As CSX prepares to go into battle for freight traffic
with Norfolk Southern
Corp., which will get the other half of Conrail, CSX
operations will be run by
a Conrail man. Its most service-sensitive business
unit will be run by a
Conrail man. Labor relations will be run by a Conrail
man. Locomotive and
crew management will be the responsibility of a
Conrail man. Numerous
other Conrail executives have been moved into upper-
and mid-level
positions.
The mass migration from Philadelphia to Jacksonville
is but one outcropping
of a quiet revolution that has swept over the formerly
staid, plodding CSX.
Railroad officials, industry sources, union officials,
Wall Street analysts and
others attribute the CSX transformation to two
factors:
CSX Chairman John W. Snow became convinced that the
railroad had
become so embroiled in the bruising battle for Conrail
in 1997 that its service
and revenue were slipping.
There is a fear that failure to do well in the Conrail
merger would be the last
straw for Congress and major shippers, already angry
about the near
meltdown of service in the West over the last two
years after the Union
Pacific merger with Southern Pacific. The whole
railroad industry, almost
totally deregulated in 1981, is nervous about the
possibility of reregulation.
"We're certainly aware of the risk that would fall on
us if we fail," Snow said
in an interview. "We in a real sense are the
custodians of the future of the
rail industry. We could not tolerate another failed
rail merger."
As in many industries, Congress and federal regulators
are asking how big is
too big. When the Conrail merger is complete -- as
early as March 1 -- most
of the country's rail freight will be controlled by
four huge systems that are
the product of numerous other mergers: Union Pacific
and Burlington
Northern Santa Fe in the West, and Norfolk Southern
and CSX in the East.
Norfolk Southern and CSX could hardly be more
different in personality and
philosophy. Norfolk Southern has a reputation as a
tightly run, highly
disciplined company. It's often called the "Nazis of
Norfolk" by the union
officials who deal with it. CSX, on the other hand, is
a loosely run railroad
that in some ways was never truly consolidated after
the series of mergers
that created it in the 1970s and 1980s.
Even though Norfolk Southern is smaller (14,000 miles
of track versus
CSX's 18,500), it has consistently outperformed CSX.
Many railroad experts
assumed that Norfolk Southern would win the battle for
the East after the
Conrail merger, which thrusts both companies into
head-to-head competition
in New York, New Jersey and New England for the first
time.
Now, with so many new CSX managers drawn from Conrail,
no one is sure.
Conrail had one of the briefest histories of any major
U.S. railroad. Created
by Congress from the broken-down Penn Central and
other bankrupt
Eastern and Midwestern railroads in 1976, Conrail
surpassed the wildest
dreams of its founders. It became so successful that
CSX and Norfolk
Southern in 1997 engaged in a savage battle for the
company, bidding up the
price to $10.2 billion before they agreed to split it.
Norfolk Southern and CSX then began a bidding war for
the managers who
helped produce the Conrail miracle. CSX seems to have
claimed many of
the top people, in large part because it needed fresh
blood at the top. Norfolk
Southern could offer Conrail executives only mid-level
positions.
Still, the fight for Conrail is taking its toll at
Norfolk Southern and CSX.
"We're hearing that both Norfolk Southern and CSX are
having trouble
maintaining the same quality of service as in the
past," said Edward Emmett,
president of the National Industrial Transportation
League, which represents
all major U.S. shippers.
Snow acknowledged he had become concerned about CSX
operations. "It
was one of the areas [in which] we were not as strong
as we ought to be,"
he said. "I think it's fair to say -- not in a
reckless way -- that if we're going
to be successful, we have to become a new company."
Even as the two acquiring railroads have experienced
service problems,
Norfolk Southern has maintained control of its bottom
line while CSX
Transportation -- the railroad and CSX Corp.'s largest
subsidiary -- saw its
earnings drop beginning in 1997, ending a 16-quarter
string of
record-breaking profits.
Snow reportedly told colleagues that the railroad
seemed to have lost its
momentum at just the wrong time. He became persuaded
that CSX was
using the Conrail merger battle as an excuse for
failure, industry sources
say, and the railroad needed an emotional jolt to get
moving again.
Snow delivered two jolts in 1998, one in June and the
other in October.
The first was the June 10 announcement that Ronald
Conway, Conrail's
senior vice president of operations, would be CSX's
new executive vice
president of operations, the man who is supposed to
make the trains run on
time. He succeeded the retiring Carl N. Taylor. Six
days later, Conrail
Senior Vice President Frank H. Nichols became CSX vice
president for
employee relations, succeeding the retiring Donald
Davis. Already at CSX
from Conrail was Gary M. Spiegel, the new vice
president for network
operations, in charge of the customer-service and
dispatching centers as well
as locomotive and crew management. Gerald T. Gates,
who was Conrail's
vice president in charge of merger consolidation, also
came to CSX earlier
as CSX vice president in charge of operations on
former Conrail lines, and is
expected to move up in CSX.
Conway swept through the CSX operation like a giant
broom. In his first five
days on the job, he sent a powerful signal that he
would give field managers
far more responsibility for running the railroad,
transferring responsibility for
track maintenance, signals and other engineering and
mechanical duties to
local managers.
That lack of local control was a key factor in
month-long disruptions to
Virginia Railway Express service after a freight-train
accident in Arlington in
July 1997. Promises and reassurances from CSX's
corridor manager in
Baltimore were repeatedly thwarted by decisions made
-- or not made -- in
Jacksonville.
"We totally embrace Ron Conway's concepts," said David
Snyder, VRE's
manager of railroad services. "We saw them at Conrail,
and we welcome
them to CSX."
Snyder said Conway is already beginning to produce
results, although "right
now it's a straw horse and it needs more meat on the
bones." For example,
Snyder said, managers in the Baltimore-Washington area
should control
commuter trains running in Virginia and Maryland. Now
a dispatching center
in Jacksonville, 800 miles to the south, controls
operations.
Conway said this power-to-the-field trend is just
beginning. Among other
things, he said he is opposed to centralized
dispatching centers such as the
Dufford Center in Jacksonville. He also intends to
give local managers more
power over their budgets by introducing a new computer
system that will
allow them to estimate how much revenue would be
generated -- as well as
cost incurred -- by innovations. For instance, adding
a new local freight train
might produce more revenue than it would cost.
"It allows us to play what-if games," Conway said. "We
can ask, 'Did I make
it better or worse?' "
Industry sources said Conway is likely to be named
president of CSX within
a few years. The current president, Alvin R. "Pete"
Carpenter, whose
enthusiasm and cheerleading personality have
engendered strong loyalties on
the CSX board and among some top CSX managers, is said
to be
considering retirement within a couple of years, and
Snow is said to have
told him that his presence is important until it is
clear that the Conrail
acquisition is running smoothly.
"I'll certainly be around till that's [the Conrail
transition] done well,"
Carpenter said last week. He said he also is dedicated
to a new employee
relations program that involves a cultural shift in
discipline policies and
management-employee communication, and "I want to see
it a long way
down the road before I leave," he said.
Snow, while declining to discuss future personnel
moves, said that in the
Conrail merger, "one of the great pluses for us is Ron
and his operating
people. The windfall is, we got so many of them."
Snow's second jolt was a double-barreled October
surprise.
First, corporate headquarters in Richmond took over
CSX Transportation's
financial organization. All finance for both the
corporation and the railroad
was consolidated under Paul R. Goodwin, the
corporation's executive vice
president and chief financial officer.
In addition, the October announcement heralded the
return of former CSX
official Aden Adams as vice president for marketing.
Adams, 59, has already engaged Norfolk Southern in a
quiet rate war for
future chemical traffic in the East. That war became
so bloody that sources
in both railroads say the cost of the merger in lost
revenue -- put at $87
million in their merger filings -- has already doubled
and may triple. Sources
on both railroads said cooler heads prevailed before
the war spread beyond
chemicals.
One of the most important battles the new CSX faces is
for the crucial
intermodal business -- the transport of truck trailers
or marine containers
carried on flatcars. In charge of this business, which
generated $669 million
in revenue for the company in 1997, is another Conrail
veteran, Lester
Passa.
Arriving in May 1997, Passa helped plan the merger and
then was given one
of the toughest jobs at the company -- to persuade a
railroad built on hauling
coal and other low-speed bulk products that it must
provide high-speed,
on-time service in order to compete with trucks. His
former company,
Conrail, is recognized as a leader at this.
"There's a mindset shift that's going on here," Passa
said.
That difficult shift still pales in comparison to what
is perhaps the most
ambitious of CSX's projects -- changing an internal
culture of intimidation.
Jim Schultz, a former Federal Railroad Administration
official, is charged
with ending 150 years of militaristic railroad
discipline. Schultz calls his plan
"the new compact with employees."
Some of the new compact was quickly obvious, such as
the popular
company-wide full-time casual dress policy, designed
to lessen the
us-versus-them tone of bosses in suits and workers in
jeans.
But the heart of the compact is far more difficult --
changing a punitive
disciplinary system in which employees are subjected
to "investigations" for
rule infractions and sometimes suspended or fired,
often getting their jobs
back in union arbitration.
"We've got a culture rooted in the 19th century,"
Schultz said.
In cooperation with the United Transportation Union
and the Brotherhood of
Locomotive Engineers, Schultz and CSX management wrote
a new
discipline policy that concentrates on non-punitive
solutions. Minor offenses
and serious first-time rules violations, even normally
unforgivable offenses
such as drinking on the job, are handled by incident
review committees and
"time out" sessions during which employees receive
counseling and usually
must give speeches to fellow employees about their
experience.
Only after repeated serious offenses or a particularly
egregious rules
violation is an employee brought up on a formal
investigation.
Federal safety officials are cautiously optimistic
about the plan while many
union officials are reacting with borderline
enthusiasm.
"Overall, what's happening on CSX is a very good
trend," said Robert Lauby,
head of the railroad safety division of the National
Transportation Safety
Board. But he warned that "if leniency gets in the way
of safety, then they'll
need to take a second look."
James Brunkenhoeffer, legislative director of the
United Transportation
Union, called the CSX program "exciting." Already, he
said, he has heard
reports of train crews making extra efforts to give
good service to freight
shippers because they think management may actually
care about both the
workers and their customers.
Carpenter, at the top of the railroad, has been an
enthusiastic supporter.
"I don't think this will be an easy thing to do," said
Carpenter, a former
brakeman himself. But he said a cultural change is
necessary because the
railroad cannot provide the kind of service it must
provide with "a dispirited
work force."
The man running railroad operations, Conway, said the
new program is a key
part of the rehabilitation of CSX.
"This is not the flavor of the month," Conway said.
"It isn't going away."
Officials of other railroads, Wall Street analysts and
other insiders say they
are generally encouraged by the changes taking place
at CSX, although they
express some skepticism about a railroad that seems to
undergo a
reorganization every few years.
"The question is, can they stick with it this time?"
said a top official at
another railroad, who did not want to be named.
Most people agreed that this reorganization is
different from previous ones.
In fact, in some ways it is a reversal of
reorganizations in which the
company tried to stop acting like a railroad and
instead be a full-service
world transportation conglomerate with a railroad, a
ship line, a barge line
and logistics services. Along the way, some of the
operating and service
systems that were layered on the railroad simply
created confusion.
The nascent changes are impressing some veteran
railroad watchers.
Anthony Hatch, a longtime analyst, and Jim Valentine
of Morgan Stanley
Dean Witter said in separate interviews that CSX is
getting back to the
fundamentals of railroading, when steam locomotives
and early-century
technology often produced faster and better service
than today.
Valentine said the transition will be painful, partly
because CSX and all
railroads must stop thinking in terms of cost-cutting,
and instead concentrate
on service and long-term growth.
Hatch, calling the new changes "a radical event in
this corporate history,"
said it is too early to tell if CSX will be
successful, but it is plain where the
railroad is headed.
"Clearly they felt the history of this company once
again would be written as
a railroad," Hatch said.
"They're trying to get back to the old days,"
Valentine said.
CRTS Update #12-39
Friday, December 25th, 1998 at 13:40 EST
CSX allowed to end Conrail, NS contract
BY RIP WATSON
JOURNAL OF COMMERCE STAFF
WASHINGTON -- The Surface Transportation Board is
allowing a CSX Corp. intermodal subsidiary to
nullify rail contracts with Conrail Inc. and
Norfolk Southern Corp. when CSX and NS take over
their portions of Conrail early next year.
The contracts cover rail service between Chicago
and the New York area. The agreements divided up
rail service arranged by CSX Intermodal Inc.
between an all-Conrail routing and a combination of
Norfolk Southern service between Chicago and
Buffalo and service by New York, Susquehanna and
Western Railroad between Buffalo and the New York
area.
CSX Intermodal, which arranges for rail intermodal
services over CSX Transportation and other
railroads, faced the prospect of having those
contracts continued after CSX and NS assumed
control of their portions of Conrail assets. The
STB said specifically that the CSXI contracts must
remain in force until "Day One," the undetermined
date when Conrail assets are divided by their
purchasers.
When NS and CSX sought STB approval to acquire
Conrail, the companies promised to create new
competition for intermodal service in markets such
as Chicago-New York that are dominated today by
Conrail.
The STB's decision to approve the application
required the acquiring companies to renegotiate
existing Conrail contracts six months after NS and
CSX actually took over their portions of Conrail at
the customer's request.
CSX filed a petition earlier this month asking that
the CSX Intermodal contracts be overriden
immediately after Conrail assets are divided. CSX
contended that the prospect of having NS handle
some CSX Intermodal traffic under contract after
the Conrail division would weaken the competition
that both carriers wanted to provide and that the
STB encouraged.
NS replied with a proposal that any action to
adjust the terms of the CSX Intermodal contracts
should be accompanied by similar action to change
contracts between Conrail and APL Ltd. because APL
offers a double-stack train service that is similar
to CSX Intermodal.
APL had pressed during the Conrail acquisition
review process for release from a contract signed
with Conrail that was to run until 2004.
The STB rejected the NS request to override the APL
contracts, saying that was overreaching, though it
left NS the option to petition for relief if
problems developed out of a dispute between NS and
CSX over the future use of an APL facility in
northern New Jersey.
CRTS Update #12-38
Friday, December 25th, 1998 at 13:30 EST
STB clears CP to begin rail service to New York
City
After being fought by CSX, the Canadian railroad
will get access to railyards in several of the
city's boroughs
BY RIP WATSON
WASHINGTON -- The Surface Transportation Board has
cleared Canadian Pacific Railway to begin service
to New York City after the division of Conrail Inc.
assets between Norfolk Southern Corp. and CSX Corp.
early next year.
The decision establishes the terms for re-creating
rail service to the city lost after Conrail was
created. New York state and local officials had
pressed for restoration of rail-to-rail competition
when NS and CSX took over Conrail because much of
New Jersey would be regaining two-railroad service
as a result of that transaction.
The board had directed CSX, which will inherit
Conrail's lines in New York City and the east side
of the Hudson River, to negotiate terms of trackage
rights that were given to CP as a condition of the
STB's approval of the transaction.
CP and CSX failed to reach a negotiated settlement,
prompting the board to step in and set terms
allowing CP to provide service between the Albany,
N.Y., area and New York City. The board agreed with
CSX and rejected the Canadian carrier's request to
serve intermediate points between those two cities.
But the STB allowed Canadian Pacific a wider area
of service within the Bronx and Queens, including
access to all railyards in those boroughs of New
York City. In earlier proceedings, CSX fought CP's
efforts to serve all New York City terminals.
However, CSX and CP later agreed on a plan to let
the Canadian line serve a produce market at Hunts
Point, two other railyards in the Bronx and a
terminal in Queens for a connection with the New
York & Atlantic Railroad, a freight carrier that
serves Long Island. The decision also resolved
differences between CP and CSX over terms for using
the Albany-New York line. The STB set a
$250-per-car switching fee that CSX could charge to
move CP's traffic to and from local customers.
The board adopted a higher rate of track use
charges than CP requested, but the agency said the
additional cost of $30 a car should not discourage
CP from using the new rights.
In a related matter, the STB rejected a request by
the Providence & Worcester Railroad to have a
special judge settle questions of the service
rights the P&W was given between New Haven, Conn.,
and New York as part of the Conrail decision. The
board directed P&W to continue negotiating terms
with CSX, which is inheriting the Conrail line
between those two communities.
The board also turned aside a request from the
Housatonic Railroad, which was seeking rights to
connect with Canadian Pacific after that railroad
established service between Albany and New York.
CRTS Update #11-54
Sunday, November 24th, 1998 at 10:40 EST
Norfolk Southern agrees to back CN-IC merger
BY RIP WATSON
The number of carriers opposing the proposed merger
of Canadian National Railway Co. and Illinois
Central Corp. was whittled down to two after a
settlement agreement was reached with Norfolk
Southern Corp.
That leaves Union Pacific Railroad and Canadian
Pacific Railway as the only railroads still
opposed. CN and IC previously reached agreements
with CSX Transportation and Burlington Northern and
Santa Fe Railway.
Details of the latest settlement remain
confidential. But it was understood that the terms
satisfied NS concerns about post-merger service
levels and rail line capacity on tracks in four
areas where NS routes meet those owned by IC and
Kansas City Southern Railway.
KCS signed a 15-year marketing deal with the merger
applicants earlier this year.
NS feared that CN and IC's application allowed for
less than $1 million in capital spending for
mainline route improvements, even though the
companies and KCS expected to boost revenue by 7%
from new business.
After NS and CSX spent $10 billion to acquire
Conrail Inc. last year, they promised to spend
close to $1 billion on route expansion projects.
NS also sought assurances of non-discriminatory
handling of its traffic and a commitment to meet
negotiated standards of service, track maintenance
and capital improvement projects.
NS focused its concerns on a route between Chicago
and Gibson City, Ill., that IC owns and NS uses
through trackage rights. NS also voiced concern
about Springfield, Ill., and Tolono, Ill., where
existing NS and IC routes converge.
The fourth line is a KCS route between Texas and an
NS interchange at Meridian, Miss.
"NS is satisfied that the parties' settlement
agreement fully and adequately addresses the
concerns. Such issues are best resolved by the
parties themselves," NS Chairman David Goode said.
UP's wants CN-IC to refile their plan because UP
contends the marketing alliance with KCS creates a
practical three-way merger with just two
applicants.
CP wants CN to sell its half-interest in a rail
tunnel between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario 50%
owned by CP.
CP maintains that CN won't increase clearances in
the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel because it wants to
remain the only company to handle full-sized
double-stack trains and the newest generation of
automotive equipment through a second, CN-owned,
tunnel between Sarnia, Ontario, and Port Huron,
Mich.
A handful of shippers in Geismar, La., and other
parts of the state are also concerned. They say the
three-way marketing alliance will not deliver on
promised future competition for chemical traffic.
Several shippers want to be included in a plan that
would create new competition for three shippers in
Geismar through haulage rights that Illinois
Central would grant to KCS in the area.
CRTS Update #11-49
Saturday, November 21st, 1998 at 18:45 EST
Subject: Conrail 1998 Thanksgiving Holiday
In order to provide you with advance information regarding Conrail's
1998
Thanksgiving Holiday Operating plan, the following service plan will be
followed over the Holiday period for the CORE Service Network.
Road Operation:
Through Freight Trains will not operate from 9:00 P.M. Wednesday
November
25th through 9:00 P.M. Friday November 27th.
Classification Yard Operation:
The major classification yards will be shut down as outlined below:
Oak Island NJ - 7:00 A.M. Thur 11/26 through 7:00 A.M. Sun 11/29
Allentown PA - 7:00 A.M. Thur 11/26 through 7:00 A.M. Sun 11/29
Selkirk NY - 3:00 P.M. Thur 11/26 through 7:00 A.M. Sat 11/28
Frontier NY - 3:00 P.M. Thur 11/26 through 7:00 A.M. Fri 11/27
And
- 3:00 P.M. Fri 11/27 through 7:00 A.M. Sat 11/28
Conway PA - 7:00 A.M. Thur 11/26 through 7:00 A.M. Sat 11/28
Elkhart IN - 3:00 P.M. Thur 11/26 through 3:00 P.M. Fri 11/27
And
- 11:00 P.M. Fri 11/27 through 7:00 A.M. Sat 11/28
Stanley OH - 11:00 P.M. Wed 11/25 through 7:00 A.M. Sat 11/28
Big Four IN - 11:00 P.M. Wed 11/25 through 3:00 P.M. Fri 11/27
Buckeye OH - 11:00 P.M. Wed 11/25 through 3:00 P.M. Fri 11/27
Local Industrial Service:
As a general rule, Local service will be shut down Thursday November
26th
through Sunday November 29th except where customer requirements dictate
that
service be provided. Please contact Conrail local Transportation
personnel if
you require local service during this period.
Computer system changes:
Over the Thanksgiving weekend, Conrail will realign station assignments
within its computer system. These changes will be transparent to our
customers
and will not affect your current operations or customer service
procedures.
CRTS Update #11-48
Saturday, November 21st, 1998 at 18:35 EST
Golden Spike Marks Completion Of Major Rail Project
Creates World-Class Transportation Link To The Northeast
WILLOW CREEK, Ind., Nov. 20th, 1998 -- With the pounding of a golden
spike and the joining of two locomotives, CSX Transportation Inc. (CSXT)
today
announced the grand opening of its $220-million capacity expansion
project,
described as one of the most ambitious U.S. rail freight development
projects
in modern times.
CSXT and state officials drove the golden spike, symbolizing the
completion of the project that links the former B&O rail line to
Conrail's
Water Level route into the Northeast. Two locomotives -- one CSXT
and one
Conrail -- then met nose to nose signifying the joining of the two
railroads.
The expansion effort will create a world-class transportation link
connecting local communities throughout northern Indiana and northern
Ohio
with major consumption markets in the Northeast. The massive
construction
project establishes an expanded high-capacity, double-track route
between
Chicago and the East Coast, CSXT President and Chief Executive Officer
A. R.
"Pete" Carpenter said.
"The enhancements we have made along this key rail line have created the
most direct route from New England and mid-Atlantic coast ports and
industrial
centers of the Midwest," said Carpenter. "The result will be
dramatically
improved service and vastly increased capacity across the entire line."
CSXT continues to work closely with state and local economic development
officials in attracting new business to Indiana and Ohio.
"A first-class railroad running from Cleveland to Chicago will prove to
be
a major
selling point to prospective industries that require high
quality
transportation service,"
Carpenter said.
Throughout the region, more than 100 route miles of new track were
constructed and another 250 route miles of existing track were
reconstructed
and upgraded. The project included installation of crossover tracks and
signaling systems that allow reverse operation over all rail lines. In
addition, more than a dozen new connecting tracks were installed to
smooth
traffic flows on the CSXT system and to facilitate interchange of
traffic with
short line railroads, regional rail carriers and other railroads serving
the
region.
The Chicago-to-Greenwich upgrade is part of a $500 million capital
improvement program CSXT is planning over and above its regular capital
spending to smoothly integrate roughly half of the Conrail rail system
into
its own. CSX, along with Norfolk Southern Corporation, is jointly
acquiring
Conrail.
Today's event is reminiscent of the original Golden Spike ceremony that
took place at Promontory, Utah, on May 10, 1869, marking the meeting
site of
the Union Pacific Railroad and the Central Pacific Railroad to form
North
America's first transcontinental railroad.
CSXT and its 28,000 employees provide rail transportation and
distribution
services over an 18,300 route-mile network in 20 states, the District of
Columbia and Ontario, Canada. CSXT is a business unit of CSX Corporation
(NYSE: CSX), headquartered in Richmond, Virginia.
B&O Capacity Improvement Project Fast Facts
Total Investment: $220 million
Project Scope: 270 miles, from Greenwich, OH, to East Gary, IN
Duration of Core Project: 18 months, from April 1997 to October 1998
Official In-Service Date: November 4th, 1998
New Track: 130 miles, including 100 miles of new double track, with the
remainder in yard tracks and new third main
Signal System Upgrade: 250 bi-directional trackside signals with Harmon
Electro-code vital circuits and wireless radiocode to control points
New Mainline Crossovers: 78
Set-off Tracks: 20
New Connections to Conrail Lines: 2, at Greenwich, OH; and Willow Creek,
IN
Highway Crossing Consolidations: 15
Pole Line Replaced: 270 miles
Track Ballast Used: 600,000 tons
Speeds: Before upgrade: passenger, 69 MPH; freight, 59 MPH
After upgrade: passenger, 69 MPH; freight, 69 MPH
Local Purchases: Indiana, $8.4 million Ohio, $5 million
CRTS Update #11-47
Saturday, November 21st, 1998 at 18:30 EST
Norfolk Southern Implementation Update: November 20, 1998
Notable
Norfolk Southern has taken the initial legal steps necessary to
establish March 1, 1999, as the Conrail transaction "Closing Date" -
the date on which NS would begin operating a significant portion of the
routes and assets of Conrail.
Norfolk Southern's latest 10Q statement, a financial document
filed this week with the Securities and Exchange Commission, included
the following statement with regard to the Conrail transaction:
"NS will begin providing rail freight services on portions of
Conrail's route system after the Closing Date. Closing now is expected
to occur in the first quarter of 1999. NS personnel are making plans on
the basis of a March 1 Closing Date. However, closing continues to be
subject to a number of contingencies, including attainment of necessary
labor implementing agreements and a determination that all necessary
systems are in place and that implementation can be accomplished safely
and with a minimum of service disruptions, any one of which might
postpone the Closing Date and the realization of benefits NS expects to
derive from the transaction."
David R. Goode, NS chairman, president and chief executive
officer, said the date is based on information currently available
"and the progress our employees have made to date to assure a safe,
successful transition.
"The announcement gives me the opportunity to thank both Norfolk
Southern and Conrail employees once again for your hard work and
dedication to the Conrail implementation effort during the past two
years," said Goode. "While it has been a time of uncertainty and
challenge for all of us, your efforts have positioned Norfolk Southern
for a future of growth and prosperity.
"I am especially proud of the teamwork our employees have
demonstrated both internally and with their counterparts at Conrail and
CSX. Continued teamwork and attention to every detail of the
implementation will be necessary to ensure that we deliver to our
customers, investors and communities as well as ourselves the full
benefits of the Conrail transaction that we promised - safe and
competitive rail service without disruptions.
"The Conrail transaction provides Norfolk Southern the
opportunity, as never before, to realize our vision to be the safest,
most customer focused and successful transportation company in the
world. I am confident that we will be ready by March 1, and I want to
assure you that when we proceed, we will do so safely and with proper
service. I know that I can count on you and our colleagues joining us
from Conrail to make implementation of the Conrail transaction a
complete success of which we all will be proud."
Norfolk Southern will serve 1,946 new stations after it begins
operating a portion of the routes and assets of Conrail. A database
listing of those stations and the accounting code numbers identifying
them for waybill purposes - officially known as an industry reference
file - was released to the Association of American Railroads this week.
"Release of the industry reference file is a key step in bringing
about smooth implementation of the Conrail transaction," said Sarah
Corey, director, Norfolk. "This is important because on Day One,
Conrail will no longer show up on new waybills. The industry reference
file enables the AAR to notify all carriers about the new NS stations
so that accurate waybills can be produced for interline movements to
new Northeast points served by NS."
Identifying the new stations and assigning each a distinct number
was a mammoth effort involving the Transportation, Accounting,
Marketing and Information Technology departments on NS, working
together on the Conrail implementation Customer Billing Team. The team
worked closely with representatives of Conrail and CSX, which also
released an industry reference file for the new stations on the portion
of Conrail it will operate. On NS, the effort was led by Alan Brune,
manager Waybill Processing, Revenue Accounting Support Services,
Atlanta. "It has been an ongoing process since early last year to get
everything to this point," said Brune.
Programming of computer systems necessary for Closing to occur is
nearing completion, according to Cindy Earhart, assistant vice
president Information Systems for NS. Scheduled to begin next month is
integration testing of programs to assure that computer applications
supporting primary business areas will function properly with new
Conrail data.
Final testing will be designed to make sure that NS and Conrail systems
are compatible and that systems are sufficiently robust to handle the
additional volumes of data. "The success we've had integrating the
computer systems is a result of the people involved both in the
business areas and in Information Technology on NS and at Conrail,"
said Earhart.
Concurrent with IT testing of programs, internal business process
testing is under way by the Conrail teams. The business process testing
effort will establish structured criteria to evaluate the functionality
and robustness of "critical to Close" business processes. The result
will provide NS teams and executive management with an objective view
of the key operational risks associated with Closing.
Quotable
"With the pending operation of major portions of Conrail, we have
accelerated our new capacity investments. We plan to divert substantial
traffic from the highway, but we cannot do so without more capacity. We
have committed a half billion dollars to infrastructure expansion
because of Conrail and the expected increases in our own traffic. It is
the railroad version of, 'Build it and they will come.'" - Jim
McClellan, NS senior vice president Planning, to a seminar sponsored by
Railway Age magazine Nov. 10, Washington, D.C.
Conrail Heritage
The employees of Conrail come from a background as diverse as its
many predecessor lines. Conrail employees originated from some 20
different railroads. The greatest number of employees with prior
service on a predecessor line - more than 8,000 - originated with the
Pennsylvania Railroad, while a single current employee had prior
service on the Lehigh & Hudson River.
Here are some Conrail predecessor lines and the number of present
Conrail employees who once worked for them:
Pennsylvania Railroad 8,533
New York Central 2,398
Erie Lackawanna 1,243
Reading 630
Lehigh Valley 400
Monongahela Railway Company 158
Central of New Jersey 146
Indiana Harbor Belt 97
Penn Central 82
Merchants Despatch 50
Pennsylvania Reading Seashore Line 43
Chicago River & Indiana 25
Akron Barberton Belt 15
Detroit Terminal 10
New York & Long Branch 7
Dayton Union 4
Cleveland Union Terminal 2
Penn Truck Lines 3
Lehigh & Hudson River 1
Norfolk Southern Heritage
Henry Huttleston Rogers, sole financier of the Virginian Railway,
a Norfolk Southern predecessor line, had quite a list of famous
friends. Mr. Rogers was an intimate friend of Samuel L. Clemens, also
known as "Mark Twain," the author. Rogers helped Clemens out of
financial debt and made such sound investments for him that Clemens
accumulated a fortune.
Through Clemens, Rogers met Helen Keller. Rogers supplied the
money for her education and befriended her throughout the rest of his
life. Keller had a high opinion of the railroader: "He had the
imagination of, the vision and the heart of a great man, and I count it
one of the most precious privileges of my life to have had him for my
friend."
Due to the Thanksgiving holidays, Implementation Update will not
be issued next week.
CRTS Update #11-45
Thursday, November 19th, 1998 at 21:45 EST
CSXT'S GOLDEN SPIKE CEREMONY:
On Friday, November 20th, 1998 at 11:00 CST, CSXT will celebrate the
completion of its major double track project with a "Golden Spike"
ceremony at Portage, Indiana. It will held in the gravel area at Willow
Creek Road, across the railroad tracks from
Woodland Park. The event will include celebration of pounding in the
last spike symbolically connecting CSX and Conrail. The ceremony will
feature CSX and Conrail locomotives as a backdrop in the pounding of the
"Golden Spike." The railroad will also recognize employees who played a
significant role in completing the project, one of the larget rail
construction projects in the last 50 years.
Information courtesy of: Carl G. Perelman
CRTS Update #11-41
Thursday, November 19th, 1998 at 12:45 EST
CENTRAL OHIO TRACKWORK UPDATE:
Norfolk Southern is aggressively working on their new connection at
Weber Road in Columbus, OH. This where the Columbus Line connects to
Norfolk Southern's Portsmouth, OH to Bellevue, OH main. The other
connection at CP-Colson where the same Norfolk Southern main connects to
the Fort Wayne Line is also being built. The connection at Sidney, OH
connecting the CSXT Cincinnati, OH to Deshler, OH main with the
Indianapolis Line is done and has been for over a month and as of yet it
hasn't been used. At Marion, OH they have started building the
connection which will put a 30 MPH connector joining the Indianapolis
Line northeast to the CSXT Columbus, OH to Toledo, OH main. This line
connects to CSXT's east-west former B&O main at Fostoria, OH. At CP-75
in Crestline, OH, new crossovers have been installed north of the
current plant and they are preparing to move the diamond south to allow
a connection from the Indianapolis Line to the Fort Wayne Line in an
southhwest direction.
CRTS Update #11-40
Thursday, November 19th, 1998 at 12:30 EST
SYRCUSE, NY INTERMODAL CENTER:
Amtrak Train #284, the Niagara Falls-New York early morning train
became the first train to use the new Syracuse Intemodal Center on
Tuesday, November 17th, 1998. According to a bulletin order that Conrail
put out, the station is located at milepost 291.4 and served by Track 7,
the southerly of the three tracks in service between new interlocking
CP-290 located at milepost 290.5 and CP-291 located at milepost 291.5.
The following instructions have been issued; excessive dimension cars
must not be operated through the new station on account of close
clearance due to the high level platform.
CRTS Update #11-38
Thursday, November 19th, 1998 at 11:15 EST
NORFOLK SOUTHERN AND NY CROSS HARBOR SIGN AGREEMENT
NEW YORK, Nov. 16th, 1998-- A new rail freight handling agreement was
announced today
between the New York Cross Harbor Railroad (NYCH) operating subsidiary
of the New York
Regional Rail Corporation (OTC Bulletin Board: NYRR) and Norfolk
Southern Railway Company. Under the agreement, Cross Harbor and Norfolk
Southern will work cooperatively to promote the smooth, streamlined flow
of inbound and outbound rail traffic for the New York/New Jersey
metropolitan area, the country's largest consumer market.
"We are delighted to have consummated this important partnership between
our two railroads," said W. Robert Bentley, Vice President of NYRR, and
President of the NY Cross Harbor Railroad. "We believe it will have an
enormous impact on the continued revitalization and economic growth of
the Brooklyn Waterfront and the greater New York metro region." NYCH
will have the capacity to serve Norfolk Southern through the northern
New Jersey Shared Assets Area that is to be operated by Conrail.
"It is our strong sense that, as a result of the Conrail transaction, we
can anticipate a substantial increase in business, both in the near term
and for the sustainable future," said Mr. Bentley. "At the same time, we
will continue our efforts to upgrade and rehabilitate our physical
plant, in order to handle these heightened flows."
The only rail freight marine operation in the Northeast, NYRR's New York
Cross
Harbor
Railroad transports rail cars via tug-propelled car floats between its
Greenville Yard in Jersey City, N.J. and the Brooklyn Waterfront. The
system takes 35-45 minutes to cross the Harbor and 20 minutes for
loading or unloading on either side, creating a direct conduit for
freight to reach the New York City and Long Island Marketplace.
Norfolk Southern Corporation, a Virginia-based holding company with
headquarters in
Norfolk, owns a major freight railroad, Norfolk Southern Railway
Company. The
Surface,Transportation Board (STB) decision of July 23 permits Norfolk
Southern to operate about 7,200 miles of Conrail routes, creating a
21,600-mile rail system serving 22 states in the east, as well as the
District of Columbia and the Province of Ontario.
CRTS Update #11-37
Thursday, November 19th, 1998 at 11:00 EST
Norfolk Southern on Passenger Trains
Remarks by: James W. McClellan
Senior Vice President - Strategic Planning
Norfolk Southern Corporation
Before the: Railway Age Seminar
Washington, DC: November 10, 1998
Passenger Trains on Freight Railroads
Good afternoon. The "New" Norfolk Southern really is new. Did you ever
expect
to see a luncheon co-sponsored by NS and
Amtrak? It really is the "New" Norfolk Southern. Freight, commuter and
passenger services have pretty much gone their separate ways. We
usually have different customers, different sources of funding,
different goals and different time horizons.
But most of the time, we do not have different tracks. Usually a
freight carrier owns those tracks. But sometimes that role is reversed,
as NS is learning as it gets ready to acquire its part of Conrail.
And we share a common problem; the available infrastructure is filling
up. And that fact will bring changes in how freight and passenger
carriers deal with each other in the future. Life is going to get
harder for all of us. Just how hard probably depends on how well we
learn to work together.
When I was in the passenger business, the assumption was that there was
plenty of capacity to do anything anyone wanted to do. After all, the
freight business was static or declining and railroads were often
busily engaged in downsizing the physical plant to fit the available
traffic.
Things are totally different today. Continued growth is the order of
the day.
Except for the origin point of the western coal, most of the growth has
occurred along a limited number of already highly used mainline
corridors. Railroads are increasingly focused on consumer goods
products such as automobiles and appliances, UPS packages and
California wine. The traffic is destined to the major urban centers. So
while there are still a lot of tracks out there with only a few trains
a day, those are not the lines where the freight traffic wants to be.
Nor where the passenger trains want to run.
At Norfolk Southern, we have been dealing with capacity issues for over
a decade. Even as we were downsizing in the late 1980's, and even while
traffic was static, we were railbanking certain key parallel mainlines
and by-pass routes. And we did so at our own expense.
It was a good thing that we started to reverse direction when we did,
because NS's ton-miles surged 25% between 1990 and 1997. And train
miles, reflecting the strong emphasis on automotive and intermodal
traffic, rose even faster with an increase of 35%. In response to this
growth, NS took a number of further actions:
* We negotiated trackage rights on other carriers to avoid bottlenecks
on our own route. For example, we acquired trackage rights over Conrail
between Columbus and Cincinnati to relieve pressure on our own line.
* We invested in additional sidings. We built a new mainline through
Cincinnati. And we bought surplus lines of other carriers, including
the Conrail line between Gary, IN and Ft. Wayne and the Illinois
Central line between Fulton, KY and Corinth, TN. These were costly, but
we thought they were necessary to protect our future.
* With the pending operation of major portions of Conrail, we have
accelerated our new capacity investments. We plan to divert substantial
traffic from the highway but we cannot do so without more capacity. We
have committed a half billion dollars to infrastructure expansion
because of Conrail and the expected increases in our own traffic. It is
the railroad version of "build it and they will come."
Our investments include new connections so that the NS and CR systems
are integrated, thus providing us with multiple paths through the
network. We are adding sidings to a number of core routes.
And we are even reestablishing routes that have been largely dormant
for decades. For example, the west end of the Southern Tier line is
getting investment. So is the Delaware and Hudson between Sunbury, PA
and Albany, NY. The D&H upgrade is a joint project with Canadian Pacific
and will allow us to keep north-south freight away from the most heavily
populated urban centers.
And, I would note, CSX is making similar capacity commitments. When all
the projects are done next year, Eastern railroads will see the
greatest expansion of freight capacity since before the depression.
Western railroads are also engaged in massive capacity enhancing
projects. The BNSF has reopened Stampede Pass and is double tracking
its freight line through Texas and Oklahoma. UP is actually triple
tracking its mainline through Nebraska to handle an unprecedented 160
trains per day.
There is no denying that we have had capacity problems. But there is
also no denying that the industry is trying to do something about that
fact and is spending billions of dollars in the process.
So when all of this investment has been completed, there will be plenty
of capacity in the network, right?
That is not the way I see things. Certainly, the immediate problems
will be rectified, but as traffic continues to grow, adding capacity
will become a way of life for freight railroads.
But do not expect a lot of surplus capacity in the system. Our
customers want reliable service but are not willing to pay much for
redundancy. So our challenge is to provide the right amount of
capacity. If we aim too low, congestion will result. But if we aim too
high, we will be stuck with extra costs for which no one is willing to
pay.
So what does this mean for passenger trains using freight railroads, or
freight trains using passenger railroads in those instances where roles
are reversed? Here are some thoughts as they pertain to Norfolk
Southern.
* We will all have to do a lot more planning for the future. Passenger
providers can no longer automatically assume that there will be
capacity to put more trains on the NS any more than, for example, NS
can assume that Amtrak will accommodate more freight trains on the
Northeast Corridor.
* If you are planning on additional services, please start those
discussions with the freight railroad before too many promises have
been made to your various political constituencies. In most instances
NS will be able to accommodate new services, in some cases we will not.
* No one should assume that today's underutilized corridors will be
underutilized in the future. Like BNSF, we are taking a long-term view
of our needs and will be protective of tracks, and land that we think
we will need in the future. It is best we have discussion before your
plans go public.
* It will take longer to get new services on line and it will cost more
up front. The reason is simple: with many parts of the system at or
near capacity, adding new passenger services means that facility
improvements have to be added before the service begins. The demands on
our operating folks are so intense that we simply cannot keep adding
traffic without first adding the tools to move that traffic.
Norfolk Southern, even the new expanded Norfolk Southern, is largely a
single-track railroad. It always has been. So we are asking a lot of
our operating folks when we demand that they keep all the hot freight
moving on time to find time for maintenance. Adding passenger trains to
the mix without the infrastructure to handle it is often "a bridge too
far."
* In all cases, what are we able to do will be very much route
specific. Some places, such as Atlanta, GA and Cleveland, OH are highly
congested. Some areas, such as our line between Alexandria, VA and
Manassas, VA have capacity.
* Expect us to say "no" to some new projects. The Union Pacific
situation has been a real wake-up call for our customers, our investors
and our regulators. They are pressing NS to make certain that we don't
get caught short. At NS, our first goal is, and must be, to move
freight safely and efficiently. So we will be increasingly protective
of our ability to meet that goal, even if it means saying "no" to some
passenger initiatives.
* High-speed rail passenger services will be a challenge, at least if
NS lines are involved. We will be tenants on the Northeast Corridor,
and we are finding that passenger requirements impose a severe
restriction on when we can operate freight trains. We do not think that
high-speed trains are compatible with our freight operations on most of
our high volume freight corridors. The operational difficulties will
essentially undermine our freight service capabilities. Obviously, that
is not good for NS or freight transportation overall.
Let me conclude so we can have time for questions. Growth is good for
the railroad industry. It makes trains, whether passenger or freight,
more relevant to our economy. But it will be a challenge for all of us
to work in the new environment of continued growth. Planning will be
essential. Dialogue will be critical; we must all realistically access
what can be achieved and what may not be possible.
CRTS Update #11-36
Thursday, November 19th, 1998 at 10:35 EST
ROADRAILER CHANGE:
Conrail will end Roadrailer service from Rochester NY on Friday,
November 20th, 1998. The last train to operate will be train RR-231-20,
which will take all remaining Roadrailers from the Triple-Crown
facility. All future business will be trucked to Toronto, Ontario to be
handled by current Roadrailer trains operating on the Canadian Pacific.
CRTS Update #11-35
Thursday, November at 10:15 EST
Railroads to offer weekly service updates
AAR's three-step program aims to boost communications with shippers
BY RIP WATSON
Major railroads have cooked up a three-ingredient
stew to tickle their shippers' taste buds.
Acting through the Association of American
Railroads, major U.S. carriers will provide weekly
snapshots of performance and act to improve
interline train management and customer service.
Those steps were the product of five regional
meetings with hundreds of customers.
The meetings were organized earlier this year after
widespread criticism of service performance over
the past 12 months left many customers seething and
some shippers calling for fundamental regulatory
change. The sessions began three months ago in
Chicago and ended last week in Portland, Ore.
"We listened. We have proven to the customer base
that communication is a good idea," AAR President
Edward Hamberger said during an interview in which
he discussed the carriers' initiatives.
Opening communications
"By having our operations, marketing and customer
service representatives at the meetings, we came
out of them with a list of 'to-dos.' Several of
them will improve service in the long run and
certainly will improve communication."
Railroads could reap another long-term benefit.
As they gear up for an expected legislative battle
next year over industry regulation and pricing
policies, the outreach meetings can illustrate for
Congress that carriers --whose customer
friendliness has been doubted by many shippers --
are now committed to a proactive approach.
"This (process) was helpful for its own sake," Mr.
Hamberger said. "Those who are pushing for changes
in the regulatory system are doing so because of a
perceived lack of service in the hope that prices
could be lowered.
Renewed commitment
"We would hope that a commitment to communication
and service leads to a customer base that is
satisfied and gives us more business. People won't
give you more business unless you improve service."
Mr. Hamberger said customers told AAR members that
they preferred raw data about service performance
over an index.
But some customers say there won't be accurate
benchmarks for judging performance. Privately, they
have voiced fears that an index would be based on
last year's subpar service performance. Using one
of the industry's worst years would assure a
statistical improvement that might not reflect the
actual service quality in more normal years, such
as 1996.
Mr. Hamberger said the AAR will begin publishing
four weekly reports in January.
It will detail:
Freight car inventory, which is intended to measure
whether equipment is flowing freely or not.
Average train speed.
Car "dwell time" to illustrate how efficiently
railroads switch equipment from one train to
another.
Bill of lading accuracy.
The inventory will list how much equipment is on
each AAR-member railroad, and who owns it.
Average train speed will be shown for each railroad
by type of train, such as coal, grain, intermodal
or general merchandise.
Car-switching efficiency will be listed for more
than 50 key railyards nationwide.
The billing accuracy report will indicate the
number of shipments moving without proper
information.
Asked how that data could be analyzed without
benchmarks, Mr. Hamberger said, "This is supposed
to give an overview of how the railroad is
performing as an indication of relative health.
Over time, this will develop historical
performance.
"There will be a trend line. We are not going to
put out a standard saying that average dwell time
should be X," he said.
Still some benefits
Even without benchmarks, Mr. Hamberger maintained
that there was some benefit because the weekly
performance report process forced a standardization
of those measurements that carriers have been
measuring differently until now.
For example, carrier A may show in its records that
a shipment has not been forwarded to carrier B even
though company B has already listed the carload as
ready for departure on one of its trains.
Mr. Hamberger said carriers emerged from the
meetings with a commitment to improve that
interline service process, not only for their
internal operations but also for the customer. AAR
members also will be trying to identify new ways to
improve customer service procedures when there are
delays, Mr. Hamberger said.
Making practices better
That effort will include evaluation of a "best
practices" approach that could establish more
consistent problem-solving procedures at each
carrier and similar organizational structure.
Mr. Hamberger said carriers are weighing whether to
have a customer service symposium early next year
to examine approaches such as shifting customer
service responsibility from marketing and sales to
the operations department that actually provides
the service.
CRTS Update #11-31
Sunday, November 15th, 1998 at 10:45 EST
Industry gets ready for Conrail division
Shippers await word on contract assignments
BY RIP WATSON
W ith Norfolk Southern Corp. and CSX Corp. making
final preparations for the breakup of Conrail early
next year, carriers and shippers alike are getting
set to deal with a new world of opportunity after
the split.
As the National Industrial Transportation League
gathers for its annual meeting this week in San
Diego, the immediate commercial issue for NS, CSX
and their customers is to finalize who will assume
the existing Conrail contracts after the breakup
occurs.
Allocations imminent
The companies have advised that the process of
allocating those contracts will be completed this
month. That means Conrail customers should know in
the coming weeks whether NS or CSX will be taking
over their existing Conrail contracts for much of
1999.
Under the terms of their purchase of Conrail, NS
will assume 58% of the value of Conrail contracts,
while CSX takes over 42%. The percentages represent
the amount of each company's financial investment
in their purchase.
When the split occurs, NS and CSX will divide about
$3.7 billion in rail revenue. Some 20% of that
traffic should be subject to new rail-to-rail
competition under the plan approved by the Surface
Transportation Board this summer.
Areas where new competition will be created include
Detroit, Philadelphia/southern New Jersey and
northern New Jersey.
In the meantime, the key question of how well the
buyers of Conrail can provide the service called
for by those contracts will remain unanswered,
pending announcement of a more precise date for the
breakup of Conrail.
The performance of NS and CSX will be watched
closely by shippers and other carriers in light of
Union Pacific Railroad's 1997 service problems.
No service announcements Since the preparation for
the split is the primary focus today, there have
been no new announcements of additional service in
recent weeks.
Both companies are promoting the acquisition as a
growth-oriented purchase in which their commercial
success will be related closely to their ability to
provide high-quality service that attracts new
business.
Shippers will be watching closely when the breakup
actually occurs.
"When the starting gun goes off, we'll hear a lot
of comments. It will be like the Oklahoma Land
Rush," said Ed Emmett, president of the National
Industrial Transportation League. For the immediate
future, the procedure for handling contracts has
been mandated by the Surface Transportation Board
and the terms of agreements worked out through a
joint carrier/shipper group called the Conrail
Transaction Council.
When the STB approved the $10 billion deal in July,
it allowed CSX and NS to decide who would perform
services called for in existing Conrail contracts
for a six-month period. That was allowed even if
those accords had "anti-assignment" clauses that
blocked another carrier from performing service
without the shipper's approval.
Transitional period needed
The agency reasoned in its decision that a
transitional period was needed to assure that the
breakup was done in an orderly fashion.
NS and CSX each will take over contracts where they
will be the sole serving railroads, according to
STB's decision. That ruling provided that contracts
in the shared-asset areas served by both carriers
would be allocated in such a way that the 58-42
ownership split was maintained for the entire
contract revenue.
The technical details of the contract
administration were worked out by the Transaction
Council created by a pact among NS, CSX and the
NITL. In response to shippers' questions posed
through the Transaction Council, NS and CSX said
existing Conrail contracts would be renewed and
extended until the date each company begins
separate operations or until Feb. 14.
Once the split occurs, contracts with
anti-assignment clauses will stay for six months,
with NS and CSX picking the rail to perform the
service. During that 180-day period, customers can
give 30 days' notice if they want to terminate the
contract and seek a different carrier than the one
assigned. Shippers also can seek a new carriers
after the six-month transition period.
Ed Rastatter, director of policy for NITL, said
both railroads told NITL members they would attempt
to accommodate requests from customers who wanted
contracts assigned or changed to a particular rail.
Shipments that aren't covered by contract can be
put out for bid at any time, but no agreement can
take effect until the first date of separate
operations, according to the transaction council
documents.
Contracts already are being written to cover
service after the six-month period and for new
business, said CSX spokeswoman Kathy Burns.
During the STB review process, the number of
Conrail contracts that were covered by
anti-assignment clauses was not identified though
the estimates ranged as high as 80%.
In dollar terms, contracts that will be carried
over appear to represent a lot more than $2 billion
in annual revenue because at least 75% of major
railroad freight typically is covered by contracts.
There are no available statistics about individual
carriers' contract volumes.
The Transaction Council proceedings also noted that
contracts involving Western railroads and Conrail
would remain for six months with no alteration in
terms for the Western carriers.
In situations where both NS and CSX could perform
the services under a current Conrail joint-line
contract with a Western carrier, shippers can
approach both Eastern railroads with proposals for
service after the transition period ends.
CRTS Update #11-30
Thursday, November 12th, 1998 at 13:50 EST
TRACKWORK PROGRAMS CURRENTLY UNDERWAY:
Lehigh Line:
Tie gang working on the single track between CP-Bound Brook, NJ and
CP-Potter, NJ after train TV-175 passes.
River Line:
Extension of the controlled siding at Nyack, NY CP-22 to CP-24
Marion Branch:
Tie gang working on the single track between CP-121 and CP-54.
Montreal Secondary:
Rail gang working on the single track between milepost 141 in Potsdam,
NY and milepost 158 in Massena, NY.
Short Line:
Interlocking reconfigurations and track extensions.
history.
* denotes train recrew