Hunter Harrison at CSX affect NS in New York State?

Thanks Andy. I hope you guys can grab some new traffic and whatever you can grab from the competition. Maybe NS will get the signalling up to snuff and tweak the track so they could up the competition

ANDY117 wrote:

RMB357 wrote:Andy, those are great suggestions to get an hour off the schedule and when it comes to intermodal every minute can count if you want good customer service. Question, if the track was up to snuff the whole way and the signal system upgraded, could you guys get a 100 car intermodal train from Buffalo to Albany in ten hours or less with two SD70ACE or ESD units?

If the Tier was upgraded to 60, and the Freight Main to at least 50, along with fixing Binghamton's lack of signals, absolutely the journey could take less than 10 hours Buffalo to Mechanicville.

As for power, if you're trying to run a 100 car train you need at least 3 good units out of Binghamton.

The South End had a lot of 50 MPH circa 2000 (I forgot our TT# but it had the SD40's in front of Yankee Stadium) and they still had trouble making Bingo to the Albany area on one crew sometimes. It was 6 hrs with high greens with enough power and no issues on the grades.

I don't think it's feasible to make Buff to there on one crew routinely let alone <10hrs. That's 300 something odd rail miles, a lot could go sideways. CSX doesn't even do that (often) on the Water Level Route.

Still, with more improvements they certainly could reduce transit time drastically.

Has NS done any work to the controlled sidings? They were all 30 MPH, then down to 25, then CP dropped them down to 10.

To make the trip, you're also counting on no meets (or perfect meets) along the way, which never generally happens. Then NS would have to justify the great expense with the traffic levels that they have. That doesn't seem likely to happen, nor would it probably be a wise business decision. If NS somehow found a great pool of new business from somewhere, then further investments might be necessary.

Strong Rumors Selkirk will close in not all too long. I could write pages but I won't, they closed hamlet hump last week, B'Ham rumored to be next, Avon IN is also I heard in the crosshairs.
Reality is the CSX is completely out of control in the Southeast their customer service is of no value at all. Cars are going all over the place and running in cycles, never getting to interchange or spot to customer etc. I have not seen anything like this debacle since the Conrail Split or the UP/SP service Melt down.

Closing Selkirk will destroy that railroad worse than EHH already has in 4 weeks. His successor will be picking up the pieces for years for shortcuts to reduce the almighty operating ratio.