CSX & NS

This is not specifically a CSX question, but it does concern CSX:

Do Norfolk Southern and CSX run parallel to each other for their entire routes? I know they both go through Nashville, and I know they both go through Birmingham.

I would suggest going to their websites to see their route maps. As both extend to virtually all the population centers east of the Mississippi, they're bound to cross or parallel each other here and there. The route structures are different (e.g., CSX extends to southern FL and Boston, NS reaches Kansas City), each with its relative strengths and weaknesses.

The old Nickel Plate was a "nuisance road" put in to siphon away some of the NYC's trade along the Water Level Route. So, along that way, from Chicago to New York...yes, the NS does parallel CSX.

steamal wrote:Do Norfolk Southern and CSX run parallel to each other for their entire routes? I know they both go through Nashville, and I know they both go through Birmingham.

NS doesn't come within fifty miles of Nashville.

And CSX does not have a presence west of Manville, NJ while NS does.

Well, without getting "place to place picky", CSX and NS do have routes in rather close proximity to each other.

This situation has resulted from a lot of subsequent mergers of different railroads over the years, so that the outcome of all the mergers are two large railroad networks that serve many of the same areas of the U.S.

Think of it as a larger fish swallowing a smaller fish, and this "larger swallowing the smaller" process just keeps on going, until there are two very large fish left in the pond. Same parallel with NS and CSX.

NS and CSX are competitors, but when it comes to working out problems together, they have done it when necessary for the common good of both.

Each has given trackage rights to the other, which has meant the savings of a lot of $$, as compared to the ongoing cost of maintaining two sets of individual parallel rail lines.

After the tremendous devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina, NS offered the rerouting of CSX trains over their tracks until the heavily-damaged CSX line along the Gulf Coast could be rebuilt.

Take care and best wishes!

ACLfan2

ACLfan2 wrote:Well, without getting "place to place picky", CSX and NS do have routes in rather close proximity to each other.

This situation has resulted from a lot of subsequent mergers of different railroads over the years, so that the outcome of all the mergers are two large railroad networks that serve many of the same areas of the U.S.

Simply put, it was the division of the former Con-Rail properties.

Up until June of 1999, the closest that the N.S. used to come to CSX was at the interchange at Kenova. Since the split of Conrail, they basically parallel each other with the old C&O Main and the Secondary for N.S.