Norfolk Southern
Norfolk Southern was a merger in 1982 of Norfolk and Western
(inc. Wabash) and Southern.
Norfolk and Western had acquired the Wabash
in a 1964 merger and it inheritated their
perpetual running rights over CN between Windsor and Fort Erie.
In 2011 NS ended the old Wabash perpetual running rights
due in a large part to a loss of local traffic
including Ford automobiles from their Talbotville 2.6 M sq.ft. plant with
only 1,200 workers out of
2,700 that once worked at the 44 year old assembly plant prior to the
2008-09 Recession.
Another factor was CN's downgrading of track due to CN traffic loss resulting
in much longer running times.
An interim solution by CN was to reroute NS trains via Hamilton a much
longer route.
CN insisted NS continue to operate across the border at Fort Erie to perform
interchange.
NS 4615_4618 pair of nearly-new GP59's laying over for
their train. EMD 887007-7 11/1989
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