CSX Acquisition of Pan Am Railways

newpylong wrote: ↑Wed Dec 15, 2021 9:02 am
CSXT and GWI employees in North Billerica it would seem, until all the smoke blows over and they move out of there.

The MBTA is building a state of the art dispatch center in North Billerica which includes equipment and space for Pan Am Dispatch. Maybe CSXT will decide to keep operations there?

Short term yes, long term, unlikely. The sticking point is the complex relations with the various passenger entities, but I suspect it will be worked out as it has been done in their other territories.

In the latest filing on page 145 there was a section on 'Inward Facing Camera and Cell Detection Technology'. I suspect this is a change in the way ST/PAR operates. Would this require union approval? It sounds like CSX keeps a close eye on train operations and crews. There is daily reporting on several train activities, any deviations, and unmet schedules.

They're going to love that. No more stopping between blocks and going to eat for an hour.

Standard practice on all of the class 1 roads and most (or maybe all) of the commuter railroads. It's a direct result of the 2008 Metrolink train wreck that killed 25 people and injured 135. The engineer was texting instead of paying attention to trackside signals. Making matters worse, he was texting a railfan friend and said he was planning to give the friend a cab ride and would allow the friend to run the locomotive. Long story short: that's why railroads now have inward-facing cameras and cell phone detectors. And no more cab rides for railfans.

500 water street is not pleased with the current uh talent at 1700.
To save on severance packages they won't fire them but kill them softly with a offer to move to Florida. The next hurdle is passsing CSXs boot camp regardless of occupation. It will be nice hearing Q trains cracking through the airwaves soon going to and from Portland.

CSX will eventually move the dispatching to Jacksonville and give MA the remaining commuter lines Pan Am currently dispatches. So a few of the dispatchers will likely head over to whoever MBTA's operator is when that happens, a few to Jacksonville, and the rest will have find work elsewhere.

Any thoughts at this time as to what restrictions, if any, the two Agencies (T and NNEPRA) impose on Chessie operating over their Class 4 track and all this new business she hopes to handle from Maine?

None, because they legally can't going back to the transfer of said property from the B&M to the "T".

The NNEPRA doesnt own any track so they're out of the equation.

If anything they want faster moving freight. Pan Am refuses to go faster than 40 even when the track can handle it outside of the Springfield Line where they are just operating on trackage rights and not the carrier.

Gilbert B Norman wrote: ↑Tue Dec 14, 2021 7:13 pm Here's a vessel presently under way to Searsport:

https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/de ... OF%20MAINE

If this vessel is indicative of the size of those that call at Searsport (draught 9m), then I can't see how all the "brouhaha" that this backwater port had any potential of becoming World Class ever came to pass.

That vessel is actually the Maine Maritime Academy training ship, based out of Castine across the bay.

The next container ship calling in Saint John, Genoa Express, has a draught of 11.4m, and is still more than double anything even Portland can handle in terms of TEUs, based on info others have given here. I don't see a point in using the Ever Given as a competition standard to go by.

None of that will matter until the track getting to that connection is better than 10.

Wait until he finds out about the Port of Montreal and the draft limitations up the St Lawrence!

Figured that was just as relevant to this topic as Searsport is to CSX— aka none whatsoever.

newpylong wrote: ↑Thu Dec 16, 2021 11:52 am If anything they want faster moving freight. Pan Am refuses to go faster than 40 even when the track can handle it outside of the Springfield Line where they are just operating on trackage rights and not the carrier.

This. As long as the signal system supports it, I see CSX wanting to move to 50 where they can on the Portland Division. It's a win-win, the freights get over the road faster and are (theoretically) less likely to be in the way of a passenger train.

They normally run 60 mph in lots of places. I would think they would run though rural Maine at a pretty good clip.

Perhaps intermodal but the Portland Division has lots of ups and down I would suspect 50 will be the sweet spot for general freight.