Thanks for the detailed response, QB. Q: what do you make of G&U's slow build-out of the long abandoned track between Hopedale, MA and the connection to the largely moribund CSX branch at Milford, MA? Do you see CSX ceding its Blue Lynx/Garelick Farms traffic at Forge Park to G&U? Or any moving of CSX SE Mass traffic to G&U operations over largely MassDOT/MBTA owned track? Just curious what G&U's ultimate goal is in connecting its meandering cow path of a line to CSX at Milford...
QB 52.32 wrote: ↑Sun May 03, 2020 7:56 am Mr. Barlow, it was my understanding that Selkirk made a G&U block for Q436 at least a couple of times last week, but the situation is so dynamic that might not have been the case with the G&U's moving on the pre-Covid-19 but recent PSR change to move that traffic for the most part on a Q436 Westboro block. True to the saying that "the only thing that is constant is change", already how traffic is moving once again has changed. So, really, the only generalities that can be taken away are that Worcester is the hub for a number of iterations on how Barbers, Framingham, Westboro, G&U, and P&W traffic is handled, intermodal traffic might be combined amongst different intermodal trains, intermodal trains eastbound and westbound are handling carload traffic to a varying extent and in different combinations, and the auto trains have been discontinued. Obviously, CSX is being very focused and nimble in how they are moving traffic day-to-day. And, while many folks express disinterest and boredom not only with PSR, but now the impact of Covid-19, I find it fascinating.QB 52.32, the North Framingham Yard Master controls both that yard, and the East Worcester Yard from Framingham. Where the road trains now terminate in Worcester, and only two locals now originate out of North Framingham (B724 & B725), any word if the North Framingham Yard Master will be relocated to East Worcester?
Also fascinating is the impact of Covid-19 on CSX's intermodal business as played out on the B&A: relative uptick in some MLB traffic likely related to rushing Chinese product to market once they re-opened and an uptick and increased 28-foot pup trailer usage at times within the small-shipment segment of business.