CSX Acquisition of Pan Am Railways

Hey all. I'm wondering if anything has been said of the lines up through the middle of New Hampshire. Specifically Nashua yard and North/West. I saw a rumor that CSX put it out of action up to Manchester after running the geometry train there. But I haven't seen anything on the old Hillsborough Branch. Is there any chance CSX pays to upgrade it and keep service? It's in such bad shape that they'd have to upgrade it heavily just to keep operations as they are let alone have better operations.

Mr. Hillsboyro, isn't that now a Short Line running North from Concord to Plymouth (along the West side of "Lake I Can't Spell It" through Wiers, and Meredith)?

If Chessie embargoed the line North of Manchester, Concord no longer has rail service and that Short Line will soon be out of business.

It won't get embargoed because the state owns North of Concord, so they would likely step up, or CSX would lease it to the NEGS. The STB frowns upon landlocking railroads.

NS sat on their hands for 10+ years.
Now CSX owns the high revenue generating part of Pan Am. The West End is mostly inbound business. Scrap Metal, Construction Debris and Limestone are not high revenue cargo outbound.

There is also a 4.75 mile tunnel that scares Atlanta and is a high risk. Why buy this part of the railroad and own 100% of the risk when right now you can only be held for a portion of it. Plus should it become a liability the NS already has Plan A or B secured via Voorheesville onto the B&A.

if ns waits long enough, mass dot will buy everything from north adams to fitchburg for their new commuter rail business.

Historically The problem with PAS wasn’t NS…. Now with PAR out of the picture, NS could actually grow the business if they owned it outright. Remember, autos and intermodal used to have tow daily trains… add in on that merchandise from Ayer, P&W, EDFLD, unit ethanol trains and unit grain trains at the least… which is all on the table. MassDOT is still planning to complete the tunnel project

https://www.mass.gov/doc/patriot-corrid ... 1/download

ProRail wrote: ↑Sat Aug 06, 2022 8:31 am NS sat on their hands for 10+ years.
Now CSX owns the high revenue generating part of Pan Am. The West End is mostly inbound business. Scrap Metal, Construction Debris and Limestone are not high revenue cargo outbound.

There is also a 4.75 mile tunnel that scares Atlanta and is a high risk. Why buy this part of the railroad and own 100% of the risk when right now you can only be held for a portion of it. Plus should it become a liability the NS already has Plan A or B secured via Voorheesville onto the B&A.

Well, they didn't exactly sit idle, they sunk to the tune of $300M into what turned out to be a terrible investment. They've either been apathetic to what was happening (and not happening) or well aware and unwilling to do anyhting about it. They also bought the D&H South End to further the Northeast expansion but have since gone down to barely any traffic and retiring CTC. All of these things speak to how poorly the railroad has been run since Moorman left.

Now they have a new CEO. They've realized they are now boxed into a corner for traffic in New England. That on top of the fact that CSX is going to charge then an arm and an a**shole for those B&A traffic rights.

So yes, there are some in senior management that wish they would have made a move, or still would make a move now that Billerica is gone. Whether that ever happens....

Safetee wrote: ↑Sat Aug 06, 2022 8:46 am if ns waits long enough, mass dot will buy everything from north adams to fitchburg for their new commuter rail business.

This doesn't make any sense, NS would have to agree with sell it.

newpylong wrote:Now they have a new CEO. They've realized they are now boxed into a corner for traffic in New England. That on top of the fact that CSX is going to charge then an arm and an a**shole for those B&A traffic rights.

Speaking of the multilevel train over the B&A - anyone know if NS has yet sunk a shovel in the ground to restore the track(s) in Voorheesville that need to be put in place to run those trains?

newpylong wrote: ↑Sat Aug 06, 2022 1:46 pm Now they have a new CEO. They've realized they are now boxed into a corner for traffic in New England. That on top of the fact that CSX is going to charge then an arm and an a**shole for those B&A traffic rights.

So yes, there are some in senior management that wish they would have made a move, or still would make a move now that Billerica is gone. Whether that ever happens....

One has to hand it to CSX for making the Pan Am acquisition happen and securing the New England freight business for themselves over the long term as they do in Florida (the ICC really helped to make that a reality during the merger that created the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad years ago). One also wonders as to whether NS made any bids on the system or not? Maybe their new management would if it was 2020 today? Would have been a good extension to their own network in the end with much more of the Boston and overall New England intermodal and carload freight running on their lines instead of CSX, but that is all water over the dam now.

At the end of the day, at least the ST side of Pan Am, is just a better fit for CSX. They already have a key corridor running into Eastern Mass which the ST essentially becomes an extension of, as well as the massive class yard nearby at Selkirk which can can launch cars in any direction. NS on the other hand has more or less a network of secondary lines (i.e. the former D&H) from its' 2 closest big class yards at Harrisburg and Bellevue, neither of which is anywhere near Pan Am. I think NS simply felt that they didn't want to be running low/medium density lines all the way up to Maine, so far from their core network.

hillsboyro wrote: ↑Fri Aug 05, 2022 11:12 pm Hey all. I'm wondering if anything has been said of the lines up through the middle of New Hampshire. Specifically Nashua yard and North/West. I saw a rumor that CSX put it out of action up to Manchester after running the geometry train there. But I haven't seen anything on the old Hillsborough Branch. Is there any chance CSX pays to upgrade it and keep service? It's in such bad shape that they'd have to upgrade it heavily just to keep operations as they are let alone have better operations.

The Northern was OOS for less than 24hrs and needed repairs to bring it out of OOS done within that time frame. As for the Hillsboro, an offer was made, and the M&B rejected that first offer. So we'll see if CSX comes back with a second or if negotiations just fizzle out.

As for the rest of the Northern, just waiting on the word.

Gilbert B Norman wrote:Mr. Hillsboyro, isn't that now a Short Line running North from Concord to Plymouth (along the West side of "Lake I Can't Spell It" through Wiers, and Meredith)?

If Chessie embargoed the line North of Manchester, Concord no longer has rail service and that Short Line will soon be out of business.

*Facepalm*

As for the Hillsboro, an offer was made, and the M&B rejected that first offer. So we'll see if CSX comes back with a second or if negotiations just fizzle out.

What does this mean? An offer was made to buy out the M&B so that CSX could operate it? Abandon it? Or was an offer made to sell the M&B the remainder of the Hillsboro line? Or something else altogether? Thanks

mrj1981 wrote: ↑Sat Aug 06, 2022 3:33 pm Speaking of the multilevel train over the B&A - anyone know if NS has yet sunk a shovel in the ground to restore the track(s) in Voorheesville that need to be put in place to run those trains?

No, nothing started yet.

Is any track rehab work happening or likely to start soon on PAS to address the numerous 10mph speed restrictions?