Southern Tier - East of Binghamton

I gotta say, I am surprised how hush hush they seem to be keeping this... All of their other projects seem to be out in the open with big press releases and their own website. This one, not so much... Anyone know what the reasoning might be behind this?

au contrare SJ - Patriot Corridor runs were quiet until one month prior as I recall. It caught me by suprise. The Heartland Project was far more public in scope and depth. I wouldn't want CSX positioning themselves against eventualities.

I suppose you're right and we should be patient. I just see websites like this one...

http://www.thefutureneedsus.com/

Speaking of every major project NS has going on right now and this one isn't mentioned at all...

Consider the fact that the other NS projects seem to be of major magnitude in scope in comparison to the Tier. Major monies needed to be expended to make the other projects a reality. Aside of the Bergen Tunnels project, which NS has touted publicly, what else do they need to do besides qualify crews if this is going to happen? That could well be a reason why there isn't a lot of hooplah being heard. We already know that NS is hiring for Binghamton and Bufffalo, and Croxton. Does anyone know how many actual positions they are hiring for? That'd be a big clue right there. If they hire 5 - 10 for Binghamton and only 1 for Croxton, that's a hint I'd think.

Jim Rowland

I would suspect that traffic is about to pick up on the Lehigh Line "Premier Route" as well with the completion of Expressrail, so the number of Croxton hires might be skewed. I'm not sure if anyone knows the amount of hires that could work to Binghamton. I have not, so far, seen any extra crews riding over the line...

SecaucusJunction wrote:I would suspect that traffic is about to pick up on the Lehigh Line "Premier Route" as well with the completion of Expressrail, so the number of Croxton hires might be skewed. I'm not sure if anyone knows the amount of hires that could work to Binghamton. I have not, so far, seen any extra crews riding over the line...

I too DO NOT know the amount of hires in Binghamton (they have hired 5 individuals already) and positions are still open and being filled so obviously at least 5 + are needed. The thing is ALL hires in Binghamton are for the D&H Southend (CP Freight Sub and Sunbury Sub). Anything they may or may not run the East end of the tier will have crews solely based out of Croxton.

Secondly, The Lehigh Line is extremely congested at this point (especially with some single track sections only). Anything thats slower priority (which is pretty much all DRY China containers) may likely run an alternate route other than "premier route lehigh line". That is why NS is looking at the East end of the tier as their lower priority container route for points all over the country. I have heard that trains will be operating to Mechanicville (and eventually points northeast), Buffalo (on to Chicago) and Harrisburg (and points south) via the tier. I'm not sure how true this may be but thats what I heard. With that said, thats quite a bit of train traffic and would explain why NS is hiring crews in Croxton, Binghamton and Buffalo alike.

Just my 2 pennies...

Jim

Thank you Jim. You are correct on Binghamton crew placement. Let's not forget the NS pool from Binghamton to Mechanicsville/Saratoga.

Also, can anyone find out if the long time CP Binghamton trainmaster was fired today?

Well I sure hope that is true. I can't figure it out though, why they would want to run Harrisburg, etc over the Eastern Tier. But there are other people with knowledge out there saying that exact same thing.

I'd think to run a significant number of trains on the Tier, they'd have to make some improvements east of Port Jervis. But if they were going to do that, I don't understand why they just wouldn't make those improvements to the Lehigh Line "Premier Route"... but then again, they might be able to tap into state money to make improvements on the Tier, plus they wouldn't be taxed since technically the line is leased to MTA...

I guess we'll see what happens...

SecaucusJunction wrote:
I guess we'll see what happens...

Yes, all this talk of new trains and track work is just to distract people while they end up abandoning the line!!

No, but all kidding aside, I still do believe the Tier will eventually be used as overflow traffic for low priority Harrisburg trains...I was told NS is hiring like 10 new dispatchers out of Harrisburg and they are also looking at taking over the Sunbury Sub by 2012... So all in all, eventually a few NS trains coming out of the Ports of NJ may take the Tier to Binghamton then head South on the Sunbury to get to Harrisburg, etc.!

It will be interesting to see how they get the trains from the Tier over to the Sunbury Sub, as there's no easy way to do it. Either you turn the train on the wye at BD, or run around it at either QD or JOHNSON. In slightly related news, Bevier Street yard is apparently being redone to accommodate frack sand traffic transloading. Supposedly the NYS&W is trying to get the area where the old anandoned chair factory and Pa's Woodshed are located on Montgomery Street.

Easy now. Harrisburg and Shenandoahs will continue Lehigh/RDG to Hagarstown etc. Just Buffalos and Ayers will come up the Delaware.

Is there any existing infrastructure in Binghamton or will any new traffic have to build new like out here?

The vibe I'm getting would be that this is more of a longer term goal... with the completion of Expressrail and the Crescent Corridor, the Lehigh congestion is probably going to worsen... NS has a pathetically low market share in international shipments from PANYNJ and they seem to be making moves to change that...

Maybe Buffalo and Ayer will be a sort of test to see how well the Eastern Tier works for more future plans....

Looks like NS is putting Dereco back together! Great thread here along with the West End thread. Keep up the good work!

Joe

SecaucusJunction wrote:Well I sure hope that is true. I can't figure it out though, why they would want to run Harrisburg, etc over the Eastern Tier. But there are other people with knowledge out there saying that exact same thing.

I'd think to run a significant number of trains on the Tier, they'd have to make some improvements east of Port Jervis. But if they were going to do that, I don't understand why they just wouldn't make those improvements to the Lehigh Line "Premier Route"... but then again, they might be able to tap into state money to make improvements on the Tier, plus they wouldn't be taxed since technically the line is leased to MTA...

I guess we'll see what happens...

Just a guess, but NS could be looking at capacity across the system. I agree that the Lehigh Line is the premier corridor for NS in the Northeast, but NS is also running the former EL and NKP under capacity. IMO, it makes sense for NS to use capacity they already have in place have before adding on additional capacity.

K4Pacific wrote:Easy now. Harrisburg and Shenandoahs will continue Lehigh/RDG to Hagarstown etc. Just Buffalos and Ayers will come up the Delaware.

Is there any existing infrastructure in Binghamton or will any new traffic have to build new like out here?

There's nothing as of now, except for a few yard tracks that CP uses to store MOW equipment every once in a while. There's no tenant in the old Montgomery St. Chair Company building, and Pa's woodshed is next door in another old factory building. I'll see if I can get more info about this.