Lost N/S Customers

When going to work I drive on Route 21 over the(new)Main Line. I see that Birch Lumber in Clifton has not gotten a car in quite sometime. Also Rafco Plastics in Totowa does not receive cars any more. Hartz doesn't get cars either(which translates into the death of the lower Greenwood Lake line).
Who else is gone ? What is going on? Why are all these customers being lost?

I would wonder if Norfolk Southern is attempting to add a fuel surcharge, and thus loosing these customers ??

I bring this up as here on Long Island, the company that runs freight services, N.Y & A, tried to do this with their 2 eastern most customers on the island.
This being Pulver Gas in Bridgehampton on the Monatuk Line, and Penny Lumber who utilized the public delivery track in Southold on the Main Line.

In the case of Pulver Gas a deal was worked out, and they now wait for at least 5 tank cars before making a run, however Penny Lumber is back to
trucking, and thus feight services no longer run east of Riverhead.

Ken

Birch Lumber had a bulkhead flatcar delivered within the past couple of weeks. They're not a big outfit and a carload of lumber costs a small fortune so they don't do that much by rail but are still an active customer. Rehies Chemical on the Gladstone Line is winding down operations but received a loaded tanker of hydrochloric acid last Thursday.

The loss of local freight traffic,in particular boxcar loads, is a reflection of the change in the economic climate in the area served. Many former manufacturing towns are now bedroom communities which are not receptive to traditional factories and such. Rising real estate rentals have forced many warehousing operations out of the area. A good example of this is the Vornado industrial Complex in East Hanover on the Morristown & Erie. When I first entere train service on the M&E we normally spent two to three hours daily switching the complex but the cost per square foot of rental space drove the last rail user out. Mostly Hi Tech businesses have taken over the buildings.

Al Holleuffer

What Al stated above is true,but also the economy lately I'm sure has much to do with it.Cannot solely blame a Railroad for driving customers away(No,I'm not sticking up for the Darkside),but even on shared assets things are slow,I recall overhearing just last week overheard we had 5 cars sitting in the bowl in Joke Island.From what I understand very strange indeed.Things will pick up again I'm sure....

And don't forget that New Jersey has the "distinction" of ranking dead last for business friendliness. Many companies are giving up and leaving and others are expanding elsewhere and just holding on.

What about those individuals (like myself) who throw half the work order in the garbage and say "Look only one car to place. We'll just go up there, cut away and come back lite." Why should I have to work when I go to work?

Looks like somebody needs some sensitivity training!!Let the nosy spies in Atlanta read this and they'll ship you out to Virginia to the Woods,Pines or whatever that place is called that your declined claims are paying for and get that chip In your head tweaked a little....GO TEAM PENDING!!

Birch Lumber had a car this week!

84 lumber and Dinaso are gone on the Southern Secondary.

NJTArrow2 wrote:84 lumber and Dinaso are gone on the Southern Secondary.

I wish people would use clearer language.
Do you mean gone, as in still in existance but not shipping by rail ('gone as customers'), or gone as in 'out-of-business in this location'? Huge difference, one could be a temporary situation, the other is usually permanent.

Sir Ray wrote:

NJTArrow2 wrote:84 lumber and Dinaso are gone on the Southern Secondary.

I wish people would use clearer language.
Do you mean gone, as in still in existance but not shipping by rail ('gone as customers'), or gone as in 'out-of-business in this location'? Huge difference, one could be a temporary situation, the other is usually permanent.

84 lumber is out of business and I'm not to sure about DiNaso.

JohnFPorcaro wrote:When going to work I drive on Route 21 over the(new)Main Line. I see that Birch Lumber in Clifton has not gotten a car in quite sometime. Also Rafco Plastics in Totowa does not receive cars any more. Hartz doesn't get cars either(which translates into the death of the lower Greenwood Lake line).
Who else is gone ? What is going on? Why are all these customers being lost?

I posted this over 5 years ago, since then Omega Warehouse in Totowa & my baby, W.A.S. are gone.

Also here is a recent post:

Farmland Dairies closing
Postby R36 Combine Coach » Tue Dec 24, 2013 4:30 pm
A longtime customer and landmark on the Bergen Line:
NJTV/NJN news
Farmland Dairies has decided to close its Wallington facility which has been in operation for decades. That means 325 layoffs.
“I was very surprised, no indication something like this could happen, especially before Christmas. Two managers walked into office the other day and handed me a note stating that they would be closing by Feb. 17th in three phases, two weeks apart, totally 325 jobs lost,” said Wallington Borough administrator told Baginski.
Fred Stern, spokesperson for Borden Dairy, the owner of Farmland Dairies, says officials decided to close this plant to increase efficiency. Another factor, the industry is changing, fewer people are drinking milk. When this plant closes, just three other milk processing facilities will remain in New Jersey and there will be fewer Farmland Dairy products on the shelves at New Jersey stores. It’s unclear if or how any of this will impact milk prices – they’re state-regulated. Meanwhile, area businesses say they will also feel the impact because many of the Farmland employees are longtime customers."

Who else has been lost, let's say in the last 6 years?

There are many losses in carload freight around NJ, but increases in unit trains and intermodal.

BRI trash transfer [Bridgewater] has apparently switched to trucks. However, they may be trucking the containers to Kearny to be loaded onto unit trains. If anyone knows where the blue trash containers from Bridgewater are shipped, please let me know.

RV Line/old CNJ main has [apparently] no more customers west of Branchburg's Fisher Scientific. However there was a net add in Finderne with a warehouse adding a siding and regularly receiving boxcars.

A large transload facility has sprung up in Hillsborough NJ on the Lehigh Line at an old US strategic warehouse facility.

JohnFPorcaro wrote:I posted this over 5 years ago, since then Omega Warehouse in Totowa & my baby, W.A.S. are gone?

By W.A.S, did you mean Innovation Fuels over in Newark NJ (some of which has fallen into the Passaic river)? If so, yeah, that was a mess.

However, your Omega Warehouse statement is a bit puzzling to me - I know websites don't always get updated in a timely fashion, but their website claims Omega is fully operational, and they are actively marketing their rail freight access - "...Both buildings have active rail siding serviced by Norfolk Southern. With 6 rail docks and 15 truck docks, shipping and receiving is carried out proficiently... ". OK, next step is to Google for terms like Omega Warehouse closing or for sale (e.g. doing this for Farmland readily brings up a number of articles) - while there are hits, they concern warehouses in other states, not the NJ site. OK, finally - take a look at Bing Birds Eye and Google Maps - you could make a case for the 912 Riverview Drive warehouse no longer being rail served (track needs a good brush cutting), but Bing has a few views of boxcars on the siding at 896 (albeit with a 2012 date).
So, did you see the nasty and dreaded "CBRE - Warehouse building for lease - 120,000 SF" signs suddenly posted outside the facilities, and nobody else noticed Omega was now history? (this being Jersey, that is certainly NOT an impossibility)

Sir Ray wrote:So, did you see the nasty and dreaded "CBRE - Warehouse building for lease - 120,000 SF" signs suddenly posted outside the facilities, and nobody else noticed Omega was now history? (this being Jersey, that is certainly NOT an impossibility)

I was next door to them last month and saw Omega being drilled, I believe it was two or three hoppers.