JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — CSX Transportation is preparing to scale back operations at its intermodal hub in North Baltimore, Ohio, which opened in 2011 as the $175-million centerpiece of a new intermodal strategy. The Northwest Ohio Intermodal Term...
http://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire/2017/10/13-north-baltimore
Brian Schmidt, Editor, Classic Trains magazine
What!
Can't wait to hear Balt's take on this.
175 million bucks down the drain along with all the kudo's.
Shades of the "Chessie"!!
Don't have a clue - as of yet - I don't have any information.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
BaltACDDon't have a clue - as of yet - I don't have any information.
I am one with Miningman in waiting to hear the BaltACD ‘take’ - and am sure that Miningman too will wait patiently until Balt HAS an informed ‘take’ ... even if we won’t want to wait any longer than that!
I see one recurring theme - dump traffic.
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
tree68 I see one recurring theme - dump traffic.
Tiny lanes and lumpy stuff don't fit PSR. I'm sure NS would be glad to pick up some of those Detroit lanes....
-Don (Random stuff, mostly about trains - what else? http://blerfblog.blogspot.com/)
I see another possibility and that is dumping/selling/leasing all CSX lines in Michigan and in western Ontario. One of my now retired CSX contacts has told me for several years that internal rumors are constant on the subject. That doesn't make it official but food for thought. CSX has already dumped the Saginaw Sub north of Flint. While they were once a 'powerhouse' in Michigan the traffic they carry now is a shadow of what it once was before so much manufacturing left Michigan.There may simply not be enough traffic between Detroit and Toledo for three railroads to make a profit.
Short lines now haul on some of the lines CSX found to be unprofitable and competing against NS and CN for traffic from Toledo to Detroit may find them running third in the competition. The Saginaw Sub used to have 16 trains a day north of Plymouth, now there are four plus the occasional coal drag, and grain trains. Same applies to the Plymouth and Grand Rapids Subs but I don't have numbers.
Given that CSX has already dumped several lines in Michigan and considering yje state is now 'out of the mainstream' it may fit right in with Harrison's slash and burn policy.
Norm
Regarding traffic to Louisville and Detroit, how far a dray are those to Jeffersonville, OH and the new CP container operation?
CSX has been trying to get rid of Michigan ever since I went to Jacksonville in 1990 and probably before that.
The distance between the Detroit area and North Baltimore is a easy trip for a drayman. Personally I don't see why intermodal car service between Detroit and North Baltimore was started in the first place.
I don't know what the business from Louisville consists of. Back in the B&O days there was a trailer ramp at Jeffersonville, IN that consistantly handled 40 - 60 trailers a day each way (dedicated trailer trains operated to the ramp and handled 20-30 cars a day.) I have no idea where the current Louisville facility is located or what traffic they have been handling. If Cincinnati will still have a facility, draying the Louisville traffic to Cincinnati is not that big of a deal.
From the article:
As recently as July, CSX executives said North Baltimore was a proven concept that would be extended to a new $270 million Carolina Connector intermodal terminal planned for Rocky Mount, N.C. Executives also had discussed the potential for adding a third intermodal sorting hub near Atlanta.
So what the heck happened between July and now?
And this:
and has been hailed as a model of advanced technology and green design. It features ultra-efficient electric cranes, optical scanners that reduce truck idle times, and automated car tracking technologies. In 2013, Vice President Joe Biden and Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx toured the terminal and touted it as an example of the economic benefits of infrastructure investments.
.....so this was all a bunch of hooey and hot air? Bad engineering concept? Bad marketing decision? 175 Million for nothing?
Obviously EHH's input on these recent developments ...well it's one thing to make a mistake by wearing white after Labour Day, it's quite a different mistake to invade Russia in the winter.
I just hate this kind of stuff. What a waste. The article explains it well so the bewilderment comes from EHH only.
Note to EHH:
I don't know you personally sir, but am somewhat well read on your bio and have seen a couple of interviews. You seem like a decent enough fella, not crazy about the suits you wear but that's just me...too frumpy...too many pin stripes. So buy a dozen or so nice $2,500 suits, donate 10 million to the T1 trust, another 10 million each to Houston, areas of Florida and Puerto Rico, 5 million to The Mining School where I work and personally give me 2 million because God knows I deserve it. That totals $47,000,000 and $30,000 or so in suits. There, I just saved you $127,970,000 on your next boondoggle ...that will look good on the bottom line and it's easy...don't do anything, relax, chillout bro, except buy the suits.
A very interesting article about Ewing Hunter Harrison III, his background from childhood on, and CSX:
http://fortune.com/2017/08/24/csx-hunter-harrison-trains/
Have heard from employees (current and former) that they built the yard too small. Odot told them if they expand past rt 18 in Hoytville they will need to build an overpass.As for Hunter's take on this I can't tell what he is thinking.
stay safe
Joe
Deshler Ohio-crossroads of the B&O Matt eats your fries.YUM! Clinton st viaduct undefeated against too tall trucks!!!(voted to be called the "Clinton St. can opener").
Perhaps "North Baltimore" (with it's promise of providing jobs) was just bait used to lure the public into the public/private partnership that we now know as the National Gateway initiative. If that $175million got them billions in public funded infrastructure improvements in return, then it was money well spent.
BaltACD CSX has been trying to get rid of Michigan ever since I went to Jacksonville in 1990 and probably before that.
Didn't CP want it? They had trackage rights on the Mich line to connect the Soo Line/Chicago to their Ontario lines across from Detroit.
One would certainly think so. Lack of a Chicago connection to their Ontario mainlines has long been a weakness. CN always had the GTW as their own, CP had to rely on others.
Maybe a trade with ol' buddy Keith, then.
Michigan ex-Pete Marquette lines for the CP ex-Milwaukee Road Chicago-Kansas City line.
And you know in about a year he will be making a play to buy KCS, which could be acquired under the old merger rules.
$15 billion will get it.
Long trains wiith long hauls from Mexico and Texas to the Southeast and Northeast.
Rail access to states with roughly 3/4 of the US population and Montreal, with reasonable drayage to Toronto and Southwestern Ontario. And loads and loads of plastics, refinery and chemical traffic.
He has always wanted a bigger train layout to play with. That might be one he could pull off in his 4-year window.
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