CSX Frontier Yard increased traffic levels?

I would say about three years ago, it looked as if Frontier yard might close but after recent visits it appears to be getting busier every day. I was on the Harlem bridge this week and could not believe the activity. The yard looked pretty full and more active than its looked in quite a while. I was thinking that maybe they will start using the hump again. Very encouraging to say the least.

What is being done there? Storing cars? Re-crewing trains? Block swaps? Or actual switching?

A lot of cars - by number alone - has no bearing on use of the hump.

The hump is still closed and CSX doesn't service engines at Frontier... but it is used for flat switching and building trains. CSX learned a hard lesson after they closed all of Frontier in 2009 and promptly suffered a service meltdown.

The overall traffic levels on CSX are pretty good. I photographed 20 trains from Westfield to Hamburg in about 9 hours last Saturday, as well as 6 trains in 90 minutes as week earlier. Neither total includes Amtrak.

Matt, what was this huge "service meltdown" you mention? I don't recall hearing of anything drastic, can you provide specifics?

it was late winter/spring- there were alot of delays and parked trains on CSX in NY. In addition to seeing it firsthand, it was discussed in an article in Trains about the computer at CSX that formulated the complete closure of Frontier.

I guess it depends on what your definition of "is" is - or in this case, what your definition of "service meltdown" is.

As near as I can recall, and what others can recall, there were some issues and delays, in some part weather related, in some part related to Frontier. I have not found anyone who considers it catastrophic. It was certainly less widespread, and less severe, than the problems associated with the split of Conrail about 10 years earlier.

But go ahead and consider it a "service meltdown" if you want.

The 2009 meltdown certainly wasn't as long as the Conrail split meltdown -the latter lasted the better part of year of CSX systemwide and also affected NS, well. The 2009 episode was shorter and a regional issue for CSX only. With that being said, I think you are missing the point: the complete shutdown of Frontier did cause problems for CSX.