CSX Boston and Albany Line

QB 52.32 wrote: ↑Thu Feb 02, 2023 7:50 pm C'mon, now. What else do you want to blame PSR for? Just look around.

Beyond what I have offered, we'll just have to agree to disagree.

"Saint Elwood's latter-day disciples" are starting to realize that "The Gospel" needs to be perfected.

At some point, the customers that have high-value traffic - autos and containers - to ship, will start to find other means - such as I-90 and 95 - to move such to market. It would appear that "The Gospel" is first and foremost about the Operating Ratio - well and good if your customer base is comprised of "Products of Mines and Products of Agriculture". And on that point, lest we forget that Saint Elwood entered the railroad industry on a road where those commodity groups comprised the greatest component of their traffic (the IC). Furthermore, the IC's profile of "from the Mississippi Delta rolling on down to the sea" makes for mighty efficient railroading.

Auto makers "don't exactly see things that way". They see assembly lines that rely on the timely arrival of parts; lest they must "shut down the line" and are looking at workers "smokin' and jokin'" @ $70 a man-hour. Overseas producers have like issues. Now that the Port backlogs are "yesterday's news" (was at the car dealer yesterday for a new battery in a 5yo auto, and they had plenty of autos on the floor - not so maybe three months age when there were simply none), those producers with their high-end products do not exactly want to hear from a railroad that they have no crews to move such.

I'm also guessing that 40 daily Worcester-Boston MBTA trains M-F plus 2 Amtraks would also complicate M436's work at G&U, Westborough, and Framingham, as well as the return to Worcester.

In reality M436 actually terminates in Worcester west of CP45, although it still says it goes to Framingham. L002 and L003 bring the cars over to the G&U, Westborough, and Framingham.

MR QB We are at the end of the CSX pipeline.All the car load fright goes to Selkirk,except with CSX owning Pan Am some Mts to lumber mills in New Brunswick.Off the topic ,Irving in Atlantic Canada,is a real monopoly,owning oil refineries, lumber mills, trucking bumble bee, now railroads NB Southern and is it Maine NORTHERN.,Oil tankers, that come to Boston etc.My point is what applies to CSX in other locations ,may not apply here since were at the end of the pipeline.With CSX owning Pan am I think there is going to be major changes in eastern, ma that will shock some people.I have been self employed 35 years and I look at things from a perspective of what can be done to save money and time.The most obvious simple thing to do is tie the pan am at Clinton,ma with the Fitchburg secondary.At one time there was a connecting track that is still partially still there.I am not sure when it was eliminated, but the grade is still there with some medium size trees.With this they could eliminate track south of Marlboro,Also Fitch secondary has double track above Wor sec and concrete arch bridge with room for 4 tracks.The pan am wor sec had 3 tracks here at one time.426 could drop and pickup cars, and switcher based here could go north and south which they do now without going all the way back to Fram.This is just a small change coming and much more major changes I see coming. STAY TUNED

QB. one more thought. You sometimes need to spend money to make money.CSX is upgrading Pan am track that has been neglected for years, which is why the state of maine supported it.Pan Am track upgrades,occured only where govt money paid for it.Amtrak Downeaster route, haverhill,ma to Brunswick,me and MBTA track and NS upgrading track from fitchburg to NY.Also,you need to take care of your employees to have a positive result.Change is hard for people, especially older workers ,but we all can still learn new ideas and things.Eliminating trained Train crews seems shortsighted..A good example is the Selkirk hump.CSX shut it down for awhile,but reactivated it after they realized it was more efficient to have it.CSX will go after new business in Atlantic Canada and maybe Chelsea produce terminal which use to get alot of cars out of Beacon Park etc. STAY TUNED STAY WARM

Thank you, copcars, for your comments and I appreciate your perspective. Like yourself, I've been around awhile and share some of your thoughts about investment, the big changes we may see over the next 20 years, and, how to treat the folks who get the job done. Though my points could easily be misconstrued, I'm not pro- or anti-labor, management, shipper, owner, government, I'm pro rail and look at it as a system. Having seen and been affected over the years by the great deal of change that will only accelerate moving forward, good and bad, I don't take anything for granted. I"M STAYING TUNED. YOU STAY WARM AS WELL!

Gilbert B Norman wrote: ↑Fri Feb 03, 2023 8:22 am "Saint Elwood's latter-day disciples" are starting to realize that "The Gospel" needs to be perfected.

At some point, the customers that have high-value traffic - autos and containers - to ship, will start to find other means - such as I-90 and 95 - to move such to market. It would appear that "The Gospel" is first and foremost about the Operating Ratio - well and good if your customer base is comprised of "Products of Mines and Products of Agriculture".

I think the disciples are realizing how historic carrier/labor behavior during economic downturns and in meeting Wall Street's reasonable skepticism about railroad growth needs to be perfected.

The OR has long been an important management measuring tool since deregulation and PSR a tool used to varying degrees including, importantly, carriers' earning their cost of capital and/or for growth sustainably leveraging franchise strengths, including beyond only products of mines and agriculture.

For CSX that meant getting over their cost of capital returns hurdle pivoting to merchandise carload growth where they have franchise strength and in intermodal as well where they have capacity.

Importantly, to your point, on the B&A they have only gained said high-value intermodal and finished vehicle traffic since PSR introduction and coming out of the pandemic, having kept intermodal service in reasonable shape and with finished vehicle service in recovery after a severe and serious July-October trough arising from crew shortage congestion seen across the US industry, including at heretic BNSF.

On the recent new traffic front for those tuned-in, of note is new waste traffic in the form of dirty-dirt and municipal solid waste. G&U is now originating dirty-dirt at Hopedale with at least one contract that'll keep the traffic moving for at least the next 4 years and CSX is originating dirty-dirt and municipal solid waste at its Westborough transload site.

Any idea what is the source of the dirty dirt being loaded in Hopedale? Seems significant if it'll provide four years' worth of traffic.

Nuclear Metals superfund site in Concord, MA, 120-180 tons/day over 4 years, to a Michigan landfill.

Oh joy. Concord's not that close to Hopedale, but traffic is traffic. Thanks for that info.

You're welcome. As I see it, it's one indication of many that goes to how, since PSR-implementation-to-pivot, CSX is now pulling traffic to their network in the early and pandemic-interrupted stages to grow.

It actually contrasts with what had been occurring previously under the Baltimore street fighter, Michael Ward's, 2003-2017 valiant efforts in transforming the railroad to earn its cost of capital that fell short. Instead, in that attempt, as evidenced on the B&A and in its yards, there was a shift of traffic away from CSX, including having a part to play in NS making a strategic move with the creation of Pan Am Southern.

In terms of judging PSR for better and worse, inspired by the Adventure/Sci Fi movie "Everything, Everywhere, All At Once" and the above, the alternative reality as to what might be instead for CSX and its employees in Selkirk, on the B&A, and including, as well as rail in general, in the region ultimately could be quite different.