Seisenbacher Rail Interiors - Austrian company to Rochester

I heard this on WXXI 88.5 on my way to work this morning.

"Austrian Rail Company to locate manufacturing operations in Rochester".

http://wxxinews.org/post/austrian-rail- ... -rochester" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Nice to see some real manufacturing locating here, hopefully it sticks around:

http://se-railinteriors.com/2016/07/sei ... -supplies/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

59 jobs over 5 years. Whoopie! Wonder how many others will leave over the same time frame. When the cuts are in the hundreds and thousands, it's hard to get excited about a few dozen new ones sometime down the road.

Interesting that the product they're talking about is rail-related, but other than that, it sounds like no big deal IMHO.

The property in question is located at 175 Humboldt St., which is right next to the CSX mainline. Hopefully it will necessitate a rail connection.

So this place will make interiors, while the cars will be made in Hornell. You could build a siding in Rochester on CSX, have CSX switch the siding, then haul to Buffalo, make an interchange with NS, have NS take the stuff to Hornell and deliver it. Two or three days most likely.

OR - you could put it in a truck, head down I-390, and in about 2 hours it's sitting in the warehouse at Alstom.

Which mode of transport is less expensive? If it's rail, CSX and NS will probably get the business... provided they are reliable.

It should be noted that NS and FGLK teamed up to take business away from trucks. Even though the rail route is longer than the highway mileage, they are running rebar from Nucor in Auburn to Vulcraft in Chemung.

Well, 45 years ago they were in there every day, back when that was Hart's (Star Markets). But with no track now, they'd have to want rail REAL bad to put it back. Pulling a number out of my wazoo I'd say at least $250K but who knows.

I doubt CSX would be really enthused about traffic they'd haul 70 miles, not to mention car supply, crews, etc. For that matter, does the CSX master plan even have westbound traffic from Rochester to Buffalo, or would it go to Selkirk first?

Of course, it's possible some sort of politics could enter into the picture. If NY wanted to make a big deal about growing 60 jobs, they might throw taxpayer money into a siding just to make it look like it's a bigger deal than it is. And some horse-trading between the state and CSX is not an impossibility either.

Grab the popcorn, pull up a chair, and sit back and see what comes next.

I have no doubt the finished products will go on a truck to Hornell for installation. A company with just 60 employees is not going to turn out the level of product for it to be cost-effective to ship by rail. Especially with no siding and the high cost to install one, by the time you put it on a truck for a transload you may as well just run on down the road with it.