NS/CP Southern Tier trafic update

BLE union in Buffalo received the following information about plans for the Southern Tier at a meeting last week:

Traffic originating in Toronto, ON now destined for the Southern Tier Line will be re-routed via Montreal, Rouses Point, and Saratoga to Binghamton. This will occur some time in the Winter of 2004.

Train 30T and 31T to be abolished.
Train CN 334 and CN 335 to terminate Bison Yard minus the Toronto traffic but will continue to accumulate Southern Tier traffic via pick ups from Port Robinson, ON.

Begining in Spring 2005, NS Buffalo Crew District will crew
CP Train 166 and 167 as well as CP Train 418 and 419 over the S. Tier.

SK Yard in Buffalo is under evaluation for upgrade to NS standards or abandon and add tracks at Bison.

Buffalo - Corning short pool to be re-established. Home terminal has not yet been assigned.

There are no further plans to utilize WNY&P route at this time.

Thats quite an increase in mileage, isn't it? Just looking at a map, seems like a train going to Binhamton is going WAY out of its way.

As part of the new agreement between CPR and NS, CPR is giving up trackage rights on the Southern Tier Line in favor of haulage rights. Even though the Montreal route is longer, all the revenue goes to CPR and they don't have to pay NS to haul freight for them. Suddenly what looked like a good deal for NS no longer looks so good.

Anybody know how this might affect operations at Rouses Point Yard? Seems like all this new CN and CSX traffic will come down CN's Rouses Point Secondary (Current Amtrak route) and be interchanged at RP. As it is currently only an unmanned storage and holding yard, will CP/D&H need to re-establish manned yard ops and engine facilities?

With all this new traffic being funneled down the D&H, will we run into capacity problems in yards and on mains?

I think the post attributed to BLE is only referring to the diversion of the 30T/31T CN trains, no? Today these trains originate/terminate in Toronto but much of their payload comes from/goes to Montreal and east. So using the D&H from Montreal to Binghamton is actually much shorter than going via Buffalo. The article also suggested there are no changes contemplated for CP trains originating / terminating in Toronto (ie, 166/167 and 418/419 will continue to run the S. Tier but with NS crews.

I've been slow to post it- after the general slighting it got when the topic came up, but this seems a little bit more precise:
http://www.ble659.com/CURRENT.htm

Tom H>

Not only the 334/335 traffic, but the traffic on the CSX Montreal Secondary is scheduled to be re-routed on the D&H. Can RP to Saratoga handle and increase to a minimum of 5 trains in each direction from the current 3?

Theoretically, a single track main can handle 24 movements past a single point in 24 hours, but does the "Champlain Division" have enough passing sidings to handle what it's projected to get?