Southern Tier - East of Binghamton

average monthly Intermodal volume has bottomed and will start to begin its slow climb into the 3rd quarter, the new Memphis Intermodal is opening i think in a few weeks, Greencastle in PA is scheduled to open in the fall, Mechanicsville to fully open later this year, and trucking is getting real bad, and not promising to improve any time soon......New Intermodal opportunities to New England and Buffalo from NY/NJ should be opening up soon, as well as capacity concerns between Harrisburg and Binghamton.......

Bottomed? Intermodal traffic has been on the rise every month for the past 2 years. Remember, too, new intermodal facilities start out very slowly and the Memphis facility is pretty much just replacing the existing yard in the region... for now.

SJ has been talking about traffic levels rising for years now, which is true. The thing is SJ thinks it will somehow translate into trains coming onto the tier, which it hasn't as of yet. It may never. It will most likely go via Allentown any new traffic

Hi Everyone,

I have been sitting on the sidelines here for quite a while now (I'm sure like many others have as well) because of all the (back and forth) its gonna happen, its not gonna happen responses that have been on here as of late.

First off, I lost count of how many different sources and different times its been posted on here that "The Southern Tier East of Binghamton WILL be used by NS through trains in the "near" future". In RR time, "near future" can be as soon as tomorrow or as long as 3-4 years out. Its just the way RR's work. Why there is some that still don't believe it, is totally beyond me. It will happen when it happens, have some patience and think RR time not regular time.

With NS interested in adding North/South Intermodal lanes and CP volumes on the rise (with the addition of Oil Trains to the Sunbury Sub), Mark is right there is indeed concerns about capacity on the CP South of Binghamton. That is why as stated months ago the NS 12/13T will be moved to a Buffalo to North Jersey routing to access Oak Island and evetually Allentown instead of running its current routing. These are LOW priority trains and the moving them off their current routing to the Tier East will clear up room on the quicker Harrisburg to Binghamton route for Intermodal and higher priority traffic from the Southeast. Additionally, NS has plans for a PANYNJ to Buffalo, NY Stack train handling business b/w PANYNJ and the new Inland port (still under construction) in Buffalo that IS also planned to operate on the Southern Tier.

As I stated earlier, this has all been said on here many times. Maybe some of you forgot or something, but just in case I figured I would post it again to try to avoid this constant back and forth business that has been going on here week after week after week. It's no wonder all the valuable sources of information (i.e. K4Pacific) have stopped posting on this forum.

Things WILL be changing soon in the Northeast RR scence, that I can gaurantee you. Just have a little patience and when things happen, everybody will be happy.

Jim Cerulli
cprsunburysub yahoo group Owner

Were those NS or NYSW surfacing machines at Lanesboro?
Thanks for the optimism Jim! I too know they are coming. Its a lock actually like you say. I just thought that we would see it by Mid 2012. We all have a beer bet going on here. If the trains come by 1/1/13 I buy. If they dont arrive others will by. So far I may win..even though I fully expected to lose! I wouldn't mind losing this one. Like you said though..railroad time is not our time

SJ,

13 week average intermodal volume tends to be at its lowest points from February into April, then begins to rise through the summer and peaks in October/November. Intermodal volume like you mention, has had strong and consistent gains vs Year AGO. I was just referring to actual containers/trailers being moved.

Another interesting development that happened today is that NY State will allow Fracking in counties adjoining Pennsylvania Fracking counties. This will just create additional rail volume through the Southern Tier counties of New York.

Again, like many have warned, this is railroading, and things are subject to change.......

Whatever the machines in Lanesboro are marked as, it is the NYSW's responsibility to be performing the work. Generally they use contractors for the big stuff, I believe. Whether or not, NS is kicking in some cash for this whole project, that I'm not sure of. I would think they have to be getting outside funds from somewhere to perform all this work for the past few seasons... How NS ever figured out a way to get someone else to fix up the line and not pay taxes on it is beyond me...

I'm hoping for more trains too, but re: 12t/13t moving to the Tier due to capacity concerns on CP south- I don't see it happening. Unless something's changed in the last couple months, your lucky to see more than 3-4 trains between sunup and sundown most days Taylor-EB (OK, maybe you'll get an extra train or two now during the longest days of the year). There is nothing unusual about waiting 4 hours or more between trains. Is there going to be some major traffic increase soon (I mean, more than an extra pair of trains- maybe like 5 exra pairs of trains)? Otehrwise, capacity is NOT an issue, at least not between Scranton and BInghamton. Maybe there is an issue on R&N/NS south, although other than perhaps low track speeds I don't see there being enough traffic for that either. Just sayin.

To answer previous post of njb about the equipment in Susquehanna its Tartaglia that is doing the work, all contracted out to them. Their machines are sitting in Deposit now. I didnt personally see the ones in Susquehanna but im sure it was theirs.

Hi Gents,
This was a very active thread until June 16th, then totally quiet. Any news on the eastern Tier?

Bill

wbrennan49 wrote:Hi Gents,
This was a very active thread until June 16th, then totally quiet. Any news on the eastern Tier?

Bill

I'm starting to doubt anything will run on the Eastern Tier in 2012.... Perhaps 2013?? I've been saying 1st Quarter 2013 for a few years now, who knows!!
I do know that Mechancville auto ramp is now opened and a pair of autorack trains were suppose to commence between Buffalo and Mech., but afaik that hasn't happened yet either!!

see post no 1 from 2010 and see how much we progressed in 65 pages ?

blockline-1/1/13...See you in Port Jervis at the Erie Hotel!

some posts from other message boards! the east end may not be coming back



Sitting back and reading all the posts and speculations I get a chuckle out of
it all so I have to reply here.

First 12T/13T: Don't exect any changes in the near future, 12T carries a rather
large block of cars at times (sometimes warranting an M2T) for the R&N Lehigh
Div at Penobscot so to divert the train vaiathe Tier wouldn't work for them
since R&N considers themselves as a "customer" to NS.

In terms of a train running on the Tier I spoke recently with supervision in
Croxton about the possibility of it and after the laughter subsided it was the
usual grievances, "nobody's qualified, it's not our railroad anymore, dealing
with NJT down from PO to Croxton, we don't have the manpower" so pretty much
consider that a dead deal. In addition most of the traffic for the
Croxton/Campbell Hall/Suffern comes out of the west and south so it would still
be nececcary to originate a train from Allentown (32A).

The D&H, Yes it is planned to be a major part of the Crescent Corridor. It
wouldn't surprise me if CP gave it up to NS. I expect once Mechanicsville goes
full and Greencastle goes online the north/south van traffic will increase
dramatically. 211 the hot UPS from Croxton to Atlanta currently handles truck
traffic from the New England area which is driven down to get loaded on the
train. I expect some of this to get taken to Mechanicsville when this train gets
established.

Allentown, it's not really a cluster. Can things get slightly backed up, yes.
BUT Allentown is the #1 hump on the NS system right now. They hump more cars per
shift than Enola, Conway, Elkhart, Bellevue you name it. When Enola or Conway
get plugged they actually divert trains to Atown to get reblocked to go back
west!

Just some thoughts I've gathered on reading through the threads.

I'd like K4 to either confirm or deny the diatribe that "northjerseybuff" copied and pasted above my post, but I doubt he is coming back because people just don't have any patience and want stuff to happen tomorrow...... I know, I know, I'm guilty as well, but I think i've gotten to the point of not caring anymore on what happens to the "Eastern Tier"!!

In the end NS will do what it wants to do, and us armchair railfans have no say in the matter!!