CPR took the D&H off market after signing a new trackage right agreement with NS.
CPR, NS restructure Northeast operations
Canadian Pacific Railway and Norfolk Southern have revised and expanded their existing operating agreements in the northeastern U.S. to include new trackage rights, haulage rights, and classification yard services agreements, subject to approval by the U.S. Surface Transportation Board. The new arrangement, which involves CPR’s northeastern U.S. subsidiary Delaware & Hudson Railway, "will increase operational efficiency and enhance rail service to customers," the two railroads said in a statement.
CPR had previously announced that it was restructuring its unprofitable D&H operations and "was seeking proposals for ways to increase freight volumes, reduce operating costs, and improve earnings." The new agreement with NS, President and CEO Rob Ritchie said, will do just that. It is designed "to take this part of our network to a level of profitability that will make it self-sustaining," Ritchie said. He added that CPR "is prepared to examine additional measures that, in concert with our NS agreement, will further optimize our assets and drive up profitability"—raising speculation among industry observers that the agreement may be a precursor of a sale of the D&H to NS.
Under the agreement, CPR and NS will consolidate classification yard operations in Buffalo and Binghamton, N.Y. CPR will discontinue yard operations in Buffalo, shifting all activity to the NS yard there; NS will shift its yard operations in Binghamton to CPR’s East Binghamton yard.
CPR will move NS traffic between Rouses Point and Saratoga Springs, N.Y., under a haulage agreement, thereby increasing CPR revenue. NS will operate its own trains over CPR’s Saratoga Springs-Binghamton line under a trackage rights agreement that will provide NS with a substantially shorter route to Quebec and the Maritime provinces. NS will haul CPR’s Binghamton-Buffalo traffic, replacing a trackage rights agreement under which CPR operated its own trains between the two cities, thereby reducing CPR’s operating costs and generating additional revenue for NS.
In addition, under a trackage rights agreement, CPR will operate over a new NS connection that will link Detroit directly with Chicago. NS will be building a connection at Butler, Ind., where its Detroit-Fort Wayne and Chicago-Toledo lines currently cross at grade. The new NS route will be considerably shorter than CSX Transportation’s Detroit-Grand Rapids-Chicago line that CPR is currently using under a haulage rights agreement.
NS Chairman, President, and CEO David Goode described the new agreement with CPR as "an excellent example of railroads cooperating to better serve our customers."
If Conductors are in charge, why are they promoted to be Engineer???
Retired Triebfahrzeugführer. I am not a moderator.
