D&H South End Sale to NS - APPROVED 5/15/15

sd80mac wrote:We can stop having talk about CP-CSX.... CP confirmed that they ended talk with CSX...

Yep, it's over. Per http://www.businessweek.com today:

Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. (CP) said exploratory talks have ended on a possible merger with CSX Corp. (CSX:US) to form a transcontinental railroad, while signaling it will keep pushing for consolidation.

It is happening. Announced today at 4:30.

Co and the Delaware & Hudson Railway Co. (D&H), a subsidiary of Canadian Pacific Railway announced a proposed transaction under which NS would acquire 282.55 miles of D&H rail line between Sunbury, Pa., and Schenectady, N.Y. The $217 million sale, subject to approval by the U.S. Surface Transportation Board, would benefit customers, competition, and jobs in the northeastern United States.
The lines to be acquired connect with NS' network at Sunbury, Pa., and Binghamton, N.Y., and would give NS single-line routes from Chicago and the southeastern United States to Albany, N.Y., and NS' recently built Mechanicville, N.Y., intermodal terminal.

It's official now
http://www.cpr.ca/en/investors/norfolk- ... ransaction" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Looking forward to seeing N&W 611 and/or NKP 765 in Schenectady some day in the future.

Jack Shufelt wrote:Looking forward to seeing N&W 611 and/or NKP 765 in Schenectady some day in the future.

Me too, Jack!!

I meant to post here that Saturday I overheard a CP Rail employee talking saying exactly this, that NS was taking it over up to Albany.

Here is the article from the Times Union in Albany, more of the same.

http://blog.timesunion.com/business/nor ... ion/62466/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Noel Weaver

The actual filing, for those so interested. Big ol' PDF, so proceed accordingly.
http://www.stb.dot.gov/filings/all.nsf/ ... 237058.pdf

It's interesting news and finally official, but why do people keep saying that NS is taking over to Albany. I don't think that is correct. NS is buying the line form Sunbury to Schenectady with trackage rights to Mechanicville, they still won't own the whole route to the PAS. This is all an effort to better control their connection to PAS and New England to compete with CSX, which they won't be able to do anyway. The CSX route to N.E. is far superior to any route NS can cobble together.

CP is keeping the line from Montreal to the port of Albany , which is where the money is now.

Sorry, to the Albany, NY metropolitan area.

Better get your CP Holiday Train pictures this year on the D&H line. On a sad note, CP was a big donator to the local food pantries at every Holiday train stop.
This donation will be missed by the local areas. I all ways had a great time at the Delanson stop. Lets hope NS has something planned like that to help the local food pantries at the holiday season.

Well I was only off by 1 mile, not bad, lol.

Regarding CSX having the better route, no doubt- but doesn't matter. NS isn't going after UPS, they want to better serve existing customers and reach places they currently can't. They've already done that and that included 3 different railroads to get there.

Looks for speed increases on the south end.

Maybe CSX's route to New England from the west is better, but not really from the south.

Time to get some nails and a hammer to start putting together the lid on a big part of what was little was left of northeastern mainline railroading. Hopefully NS will at least do something good on the Tier to offset!

Just as oibu stated, CSXT holds somewhat of an advantage East/West as opposed to NS but that also doesn't mean that NS can't price themselves in and improve times East/West to compete either. They have already had success on the order of two 8000 + foot pairs of trains per day on the East/West market competing with CSXT into NYS and New England.

But on the North/South business, if NS plays their cards right CSXT could be in a big trouble. NS will soon hold control to a near direct inland North/South route from Jacksonville, FL to Mechanicville, NY and into Ayer, MA via PAS that avoids all of the major population centers of Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York and Boston. Under NS control speeds and capacity will be vastly improved on the D&H (from what I have been told 50mph if not more in spots will be the new standard) and the missing link on NS's Crescent Corridor initiative will be complete. This will essentially give NS a large competitive advantage over the congested and somewhat lengthy CSXT route between Jacksonville, FL and New England. Not to mention with NS's infrastructure improvements and various Intermodal terminal projects along the route, they have set themselves up nicely for growth in that lane. It's going to take some time, but If I were CSXT I would be a bit nervous about the security of their North/South Intermodal business to upstate New York and New England.

Jim Cerulli

^Have things already deteriorated such that it is no longer a mostly-50mph railroad currently?