CSX Selling Trackage

[gokeefe]

So does that mean that NS to the B&A will now be possible? I'm just not familiar enough with the Albany area to understand what would be required for NS to connect to the B&A.

[Ironman]

No, there is no reason for NS to buy the B&A, the already have their own N.E. route with the PAS partnership via the old B&M. They can just buy out Pan Am's stake in that line and be fed traffic from the Class 2 and 3 roads that take over the B&A east of Springfield. Traffic on the Worcester end would go P&W to Gardener, Springfield area would go up the Conn River.

NS wouldn't have to deal with CSX at all.

[gokeefe]

If I were Pan Am I would not be thinking about selling out to NS right now. In fact that might be the very last thing on their list.

[Arlington]

What would be the best outcomes far as Massachusetts state government is concerned? The B&A seems important not only for maintaining intermodal competition, but also in keeping heavy tucks from beating the life out of the Masspike.

MA's last gas-tax-and-infrastructure bill (2013?) had dangled the prospect of upgrades and Inland Route passenger service Springfield-Boston.

[Arlington]

A CSX spokesman specifically said that CSX Rules Out Sale of B&A, but in the process admits that some lines are being considered for sale.

CSX Transportation, responding to a report earlier this week from trade publication trains.com, said Friday afternoon that a list of lines under review for possible sale was "inaccurate." The list included the former Boston & Albany line between Albany and Worcester, Mass., now operated by CSX.

"I can definitively say that this line is not for sale," a CSX spokesman told the Times Union.

The Times Union is not paywalled, so I encourage folks to read the rest of the CSX line sale story on their site.

[bostontrainguy]

That's great news. We need a real Class 1 connected to Worcester. However, as far as east of there goes, I think a really aggressive regional would be more interested in growing the business including an intermodal shuttle to the Port of Boston. This may be something very positive after all. CSX isn't interested in such small potatoes but a little guy might just be able to pull it off.

Not sure how CSX feels about Framingham or Readville.

[Backshophoss]

Best guess is CSX is retreating to Worcester,that does put the Inland route back on the "uphill battle" list.

[BandA]

MBTA owns east of Worcester, they contract maintenance & dispatch to Keolis. Inland routes has another thread, but it's a matter of whether Amtrak wants to run them and what hurdles they need to clear with CSX for Springfield-Worcester. (The Boston section of the Late-for-Sure-Ltd runs on CSX but presumably CSX would want double-track upgrades

[gokeefe]

One question that remains is whether or not the branch lines in MA are being retained.

[mmi16]

What does all this Boston & Albany talk have to do with the B&O?

CSX is currently in the hands of hedge fund idiots that will RAPE money out of CSX any way they can.

[leviramsey]

What does all this Boston & Albany talk have to do with the B&O?

CSX is currently in the hands of hedge fund idiots that will RAPE money out of CSX any way they can.

This thread's a sticky across all the subforums, so it looks like a New England-specific thread in the New England forum, etc.

[BandA]

Let's talk about some of the other lines CSX plans to sell. Or potential foamer liveries for B&A and B&O

[bostontrainguy]

Well the Auburndale sub presents some interesting ramifications. Will a smaller regional need to maintain 79 mph trackage for Amtrak? If it is downgraded then Amtrak may have to finally run down the FEC which would be a better route anyway (more populated, shorter and faster).

So you end up with JAX - MIA and JAX - ORL - TAMPA. A conductor told me once that Tampa traffic was growing a lot. Extend the Palmetto to Orlando maybe?

Now you would need Brightline to do the MIA to ORL to TAMPA stuff.

Lots of considerations.

[Bob Roberts]

Interesting implications for passenger rail in North Carolina as well. It feels like the Hamlet and Columbia subs are a likely sale item and slower speeds there would suggest a Silver Star reroute to the recently upgraded NCRR through Charlotte and then South via the NS (although there will be some trouble with a Columbia station from NS).

The CSX Charlotte tracks ( former SCL from the main in Monroe, through Charlotte and then over to meet the old Clinchfield in Bostic) have seen dwindling traffic and investment. There was persistent talk that CSX was looking to move the Charlotte intermodal yard to the Monroe area. If this happens then the tank farm off the Colonial pipeline would be the last big freight generator on the line (a cargo that the city is progressively less eager to see carried through the middle of Charlotte). If bought by a shortline, the stretch of track between downtown Charlotte and Monroe looks tailor made for a Music City Star sort of shortline-transit agency partnership.

Other CSX tracks which are part of planned passenger corridors are the still-used stretch of the S-Line north of Raleigh (connecting to the Richmond shortcut tracks for SEHSR) and the tracks from Goldsboro to Wallace which would give NC complete control of the planned Raleigh to Wilmington route. While I doubt the NCGA will peel off any money for line purchases I do wonder if they will agree to allow the NCRR to take ownership of the lines? These sales threaten to make rail access to the port of Wilmington significantly worse than it already is.

[mtuandrew]

NCRR Wilmington access seems like a no-brainer for both NCRR and CSX, as does folding the entire ex-SAL Norlina-Raleigh-Hamlet into a NCRR subsidiary (properly paper-barriered from a Norfolk Southern lease, of course.) In the event that CSX traffic ever picks up, there’s a strong case for directional running, and the state can help make that possible while also making money from the other local Class 1.

It’d be a good bet for a bonding issue, whether driven by the General Assembly or the railroad itself. Heck, CSX would probably be willing to finance such a purchase.