Matt Langworthy wrote:You are correct on 1996 vs. 1986. I will edit - thanks. Conrail was most definitely looking to dump the Tier. They told me in no uncertain terms that they wanted out. They were trying to work out trackage rights arrangements with CP and the NYS&W over the NYC via Albany and Syracuse respectively. No doubt, the split saved the line.SALSDP35 wrote:I think you mean October of 1996 for the take over battle. With that being said, I agree with most of what you wrote. Several posters on this message board have tried to paint the 1990s as a rosy decade for the Tier... but it really wasn't. I was rather worried about the future of the Tier in the summer of 1996. There were very few trains on the line at that point and it was looking like the Tier was going to be axed under Conrail's X strategy. The sale of former CNJ/LV track in PA to the R&N was also an ominous sign. I greeted the CR split with relief, because NS had a place for it in their plans. I shudder to think what would have happened if Conrail had remained Conrail.lvrr325 wrote:From 1976 to 1998 Conrail operated both of those lines and still found some degree of traffic to run via this line.Yeah mostly at gunpoint after 1980. In 1981 they shut down the Meadville line and ran one train each way Buffalo-Croxton until the summer of 1982 when the state of New York took them to court and forced them to live up to the agreement that they had in place. 6 trains a day returned but the minute Conrail could, they reduced the number. Four state agreements, each with fewer trains kept Conrail on the Tier.
In 1992, Jim Hagen reversed the sale to CP (which was Binghamton-Buffalo only), did a mild upgrade and opened the Tier as an overflow route for three years while they opened up the clearance on the PRR for double stacks. Once this was completed (late summer 1995), almost everything was removed. Conrail was even in discussions on how to close the line when the CSX/NS takeover battle began in October of 1986. When CSX and NS assumed control of the company in 1997 through a trust, the old CR management departed and a care taker management was put in place. During that time, trains returned to the Tier (stacks and multi-levels as well as OIBU/BUOI returned), but Conrail was really no longer Conrail.
SALSDP35 wrote:CSX may single track the NYC, but they won't sell it. People are reading way to much into some of the company's comments.I am pretty sure that SST's comment was not meant to be serious. There have been erroneous claims (both on this message board and the NS Southern Tier/D&H FB page) about the feds and NYS paying for all of the bridge replacement. IMO, SST was ridiculing them -he is fully aware that NS paid for the majority of the new viaduct.
I wasn't targeting anyone really regarding CSX and line sales. I hear it from various parties and about various lines. It is a strange time for CSX right now. A little shake up may have been in order. What they are going through is going to be very negative in the long run for the company.
While no one makes the reference here, Trains Magazine has an Editorial about Hunter Harrison being one of the great Railroad Executives of our time. What nonsense! The guy was famous for doing what railroad executives have done since the beginning of Railroad Regulation - control cost. This industry has been cost controlled to death. That is a statement that is at odds with the excellent earning they have posted for the last 30 years but, they keep milking the same cows. Railroads are becoming less relevant in the transportation picture every year. While trucking companies, parcel carriers and airfreight companies push into new markets with some degree of regularity, railroads consistently go back and look at their OR. Never considering that they may need to spend money to do something new or actually offer a service that might cause a shipper to consider them a first choice, not a service offering of last resort.
End of rant!
