CSX Acquisition of Pan Am Railways

The B&A is no longer a clearance route east of Framingham. I believe they are building/built high-level platforms at Natick, and thinking about the three Newton stations. So will freights have to creep by the platforms? AFAIK the Turnpike Extension bridges are not cleared for double-stack (is this correct?).

The STB filing seems to throw cold water on any Grand Junction speculation. From page 192 of the PDF:

Moreover, CSXT commits to continuing to route traffic from the existing CSXT network onto the existing PAR/Springfield Terminal network through Barbers Station and Ayer, rather than using the Grand Junction Branch. If CSXT sees the need in the future to consistently operate using the Grand Junction Branch from Worcester and Framingham, which CSXT does not currently foresee, CSXT is committed to working cooperatively with MBTA to implement capital improvements to accommodate any changes in CSXT freight service.

Not to say that it's set in stone, but it doesn't seem likely to me. Increasing clearances at Memorial Drive seems like it might be very difficult. You can't really lower the roadbed because it's immediately adjacent to the Charles River bridge, and raising Memorial Drive (which is already a bit of a rollercoaster through there) might require a major reconstruction of the BU Bridge rotary flyover and associated ramps.

The trackage on the BET end of the Grand Junction seems like they would need a flyover or flyunder? There is already one for one of the other B&M routes. It gets a bit confusing.

This is a strange development as CSX will end up hauling scrap metal and cement coming down from Maine, 400 miles out of the way to and from Selkirk to service Everett. There is also a substantial amount of scrap that moves off of the PAS to Everett (WTE at Greenfield) so is that going to now move via Rotterdam Jct/Selkirk? In addition, if you look at page 265, section 52/53 of the filing, it appears that CSX is going to have some sort of switching agreement at Everett which will allow joint access, which I'm assuming would allow other carriers to access those accounts. How does traffic off of NS or CP moving over the PAS get routed through Framingham?

p.s. Newpy, I am not questioning the validity of your intel but just trying to figure out how and why this works?

No idea just what I heard lol. I personally see Lawrence being the hub for all of it until we see otherwise. The advantages of Framingham (slightly shorter haul mainly) doesn't seem to outweigh the disadvantages when looked at together.

I was thinking the same thing about Lawrence and could see that yard taking on much more work, like handling cars for Nashua, Dover, etc.

Red Wing wrote: ↑Mon Mar 01, 2021 2:19 pm Of course I'm a forester and not a railroader or have an MBA.

as am i, practicing since 1992, running my own business since 1997.

roberttosh wrote: ↑Mon Mar 01, 2021 11:33 am There's not only stuff from Maine going into Boston, but also stuff that moves over PAS, most notably scrap metal. Also, do they have F-plate clearance via the GJ?

I saw an over-height boxcar set out just north of the Memorial Drive bridge many years ago. It had hit the bridge so I think that is the problematic spot and I do not believe the bridge was ever raised.

Is CSX going to handle the NHN trains to and from Dover and Boston?

For those wondering, the GJCT comes in under the McGrath Highway bridge at Swift Interlocking on a diamond over track 2 and connects on a switch to track 1. It then goes through crossovers and crosses behind BET, making a clean through connection across 3rd Ave into FX interlocking for a straight move to either the Eastern or Western Route.

As for the Boston work, Pan Am has 2 jobs based out of Boston right now that could certainly relocate to Framingham. The Lawrence jobs run traffic in and out of Boston and could still run cars into Boston from non-CSX origins if desired to avoid the "long move" all the way to Selkirk.

So provided that the T’s platforms don’t interfere with freight traffic, serving the eastern route out of Framingham sounds feasible

Except for the fact that you have traffic from both Maine and especially PAS where Framingham doesn't make much sense. If CSX didn't want to run from Framingham and was happy handing off the cars to Pan Am, what incentive do they have now to want to go back to that when they'll now have direct CSX access from the North? If anything, it would seem to me that the Pan Am acquisition would make it even less likely that they would ever go back to running out of Framingham, but who knows...

As somebody pointed out yesterday, the stb filing mentioned that csx would allow a “switching service” such that the Everett customers could directly access PAS and have carrier choice. Potentially whatever this “switching service” is could run from B&E in Ayer to Everett on the Fitchburg,

Hard to know what csx mgmt is thinking. Csx was in retrench mode when the pulled out of Boston. Now post psr they are in growth mode. Then they surprised by trying to buy pan am and surprised further by offering ns huge concessions. This stuff with Framingham could be baseless rumors or perhaps a csx manager favours Framingham and grand junction for some reason

F74265A wrote: ↑Tue Mar 02, 2021 11:05 am As somebody pointed out yesterday, the stb filing mentioned that csx would allow a “switching service” such that the Everett customers could directly access PAS and have carrier choice. Potentially whatever this “switching service” is could run from B&E in Ayer to Everett on the Fitchburg,

Didn't this just have to do with the "Ayer switching area"? I can't see CSXT allowing B&E all the way in to Boston to get at their customers, and I can't see B&E wanting to do that. Way more overhead in crew management and qualifications for a few cars. The more likely scenario is CSXT will just handle the cars going to/from PAS in normal interchange as PAR is doing today.