PAS vs. PAR: car classification and points of interchange

I was wondering if someone could explain to me the relationship between PAR and PAS as it pertains to car classification and points of interchange. I am particularly interested in the roles of East Deerfield Yard versus Rigby Yard and Rotterdam Junction versus Worcester, Ma. I do not know the agreements, costs or other factors involved that determined how cars are routed. I had been told the new PAS/PAR/NS relationship helped revitalize switching activities at Rigby Yard, but was not told how. Any information you could provide would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

PT1101

PT1101 wrote:...I had been told the new PAS/PAR/NS relationship helped revitalize switching activities at Rigby Yard, but was not told how...

Basically, if I understand correctly, Pan Am would previously back haul all traffic from Boston to the New Hampshire/Maine border on road freights to E.D. for switching and classification, even if the traffic was bound for say, Halifax. The one exception being the NHN gravel train.
That arrangement was of course counter productive, when Rigby was so much closer. Didn't matter much to Pan Am though, they handled the car as they saw best fit, and made enough profit on the car to not worry about the counterproductive haul.

When NS stepped in, with PAS, E.D. now technically belongs to another railroad. For Pan Am to switch NH and other purely Pan Am traffic at E.D. requires handing the cars over to Pan Am Southern. In effect, PAS collects all revenue on the car while it is moved over PAS rails. Now for every car switched at E.D. the prancing pony gets half the revenue, as PAS splits revenue 50/50 between the two respective owners.

Being smart business people Pan Am management decided to start switching those cars at Rigby (as they should have all along.) Now local traffic between Rigby and about Boston is hauled to Rigby, oodles closer than E.D. for switching and classification. They get all the revenue, pay PAS nothing for switching and surcharges, and better serve customers. Even better, jobs that were lost back in the early 2000's to management/labor issues come back to Maine. Thanks NS!

Hope that helps.

In a nutshell, with anything going between PAR points (i.e. east of Ayer) and CSXT, they are going to want to avoid East Deerfield as that adds in an additional carrier (PAS). That being the case, EB traffic for Maine that used to go via ROTTJ and was classified at ED is now going via Barbers/Ayer and is being classified at Rigby. Same is true with WB traffic that used to go from Maine to ED for classification, which now gets classified in Maine and moves to CSXT via Ayer/Barbers.

The backhauling was not done all of the time - they only tried that for a while, and it didn't last. To simplify what has already been said: Before Pan Am Southern, ST customers had two options for getting to and from CSXT - Barbers (Worcester) and Rotterdam Junction. Now with PAS, Rotterdam is now Pan Am Southern, requiring an extra waybill, and haulage / switching fees to go that route. The majority of the traffic to Maine IS going around PAS an d through Barbers despite what some may say. For instance - today's EDRJ only had 3/50 (3 loads, 50 empties). Before Pan Am Southern, the amount of westbound loads would be significantly higher as the paper traffic was also heading West in huge blocks on EDRJ as well as EDMO.

I appreciate the prompt and thorough explanations. Every possible question I had was answered. I cannot thank you enough.

CSX trains Q426/Q427 to and from Barber are so big because of all this that they no longer make setouts or pickups on the B&A. For example, Q426 always had a block for West Springfield,and the 427 would normally pickup a block at any of the 4 (Palmer, West Springfield, Springdale, or Pittsfield) locations between Worcester and Selkirk.

This is no longer the case. They had to start running a new train pair, L426/L427 to handle that traffic.

Well, when the CSX made this change the Q426/427 service was scheduled for 7-days a week. Now it is only 4 days a week. They use the other 3 days to run the L426/427 with all the short traffic.