WASHINGTON – Amtrak and Massachusetts transportation officials have asked federal regulators to impose conditions that would protect current and future passenger and commuter service in the Bay State as part of CSX Transportation’s proposed acquisition of Pan Am Railways.
Their comments were among those filed yesterday, the Surface Transportation Board’s deadline for receiving briefs regarding the merger that will expand CSX’s presence in New England. The board has scheduled a hearing on the merger for Jan. 13, and Jan. 14, if necessary [see “Federal regulators schedule public hearing …,” Trains News Wire, Dec. 10, 2021].
CSX, Pan Am, and Norfolk Southern submitted filings backing the end-to-end merger, while Canadian Pacific raised concerns about the future of Pan Am Southern’s former Boston & Maine main line through Hoosac Tunnel.
CSX CEO Jim Foote touted the merger in a statement today. “This transaction will provide tremendous benefits for New England and enjoys widespread support from shippers in the region,” Foote said. “We look forward to growing the CSX network by integrating Pan Am and bringing our best-in-class service to the region.”
But Amtrak and the Massachusetts Department of Transportation and Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority each asked the board to impose seven conditions as part of an approval of the merger.
Massachusetts and the MBTA said discussions with CSX have been positive but have not yet produced a written agreement. The state said it would withdraw its request for conditions if the two sides reach a deal.
Among the conditions sought: Transfer of dispatching on state-owned routes to the MBTA; drafting of a plan to address “threats to capacity and to existing and projected future passenger rail service over MBTA-owned trackage;” a joint inspection of Pan Am and Pan Am Southern facilities to ensure they meet industry standards; and a commitment to maintaining the state-owned “Knowledge Corridor” between Springfield and East Northfield as Class 4 track.
Massachusetts and Amtrak, in separate filings [the Massachusetts filing is here; Amtrak’s is available here], asked the STB to make CSX commit to studying and allowing proposed passenger service in Western Massachusetts over both the CSX former Boston & Albany main line and the Pan Am Southern former B&M main west of Ayer.
Amtrak and state officials also asked the board to ensure that CSX would permit an expansion of Amtrak service, including seasonal Berkshire Flyer service between Albany, N.Y., and Pittsfield, Mass.; multiple round-trip service between Springfield and Worcester, Mass.; up to two daily round trips between Albany and Worcester; and improvements to Union Station in Springfield as a hub for east-west and north-south service.
Amtrak also sought conditions that would guarantee CSX cooperation with proposed improvements to Downeaster service linking Brunswick and Portland, Maine, with Boston.
CSX, Pan Am, and Norfolk Southern submitted briefs in support of the transaction, which they say will benefit shippers in New England, result in upgrades to Pan Am trackage, improve safety, and boost passenger and commuter service in the region. (The CSX-Pan Am filing is available here.)
NS also said that designating Genesee & Wyoming’s Berkshire & Eastern as neutral operator of the Pan Am Southern joint venture will preserve rail competition in the region. Pan Am Southern includes 425 miles of trackage west of Ayer as well as Pan Am’s north-south route along the Connecticut River and related branches.
But Canadian Pacific, which interchanges with Pan Am Southern at Mechanicville, N.Y., argued in its filing that the CSX acquisition of Pan Am will diminish competition and threaten the viability of the former B&M main line from Ayer to Mechanicville.
NS currently runs a pair of daily intermodal and automotive trains to and from Ayer. After the merger, those trains will be rerouted to new trackage rights on CSX from the Albany area to Worcester, and from there to Ayer via a combination of Providence & Worcester and Pan Am Railways trackage.
“By acquiring Pan Am, CSX would simultaneously achieve control of the railroad that operates PAS [Springfield Terminal, a Pan Am subsidiary] and acquire a 50% interest in PAS itself, while also stripping PAS of much of its overhead traffic,” CP wrote. “The Board should proceed with great caution here, and condition the Transaction in a way that preserves the long-run incentives of the various parties to invest in and operate PAS’s Hoosac Tunnel Route as a no-less-viable competitive alternative than it would have been absent the Transaction.”
CP asked the board to impose conditions that would keep the Mechanicville gateway open on commercially reasonable terms; require Pan Am Southern to maintain the former B&M main line at or above pre-merger levels; and provide service comparable to pre-merger levels.
NS noted that not a single shipper had raised concerns about competition in Pan Am Southern territory — and that many rail customers, including J.B. Hunt and Hub Group, support the deal.
NS also said CP’s concerns about Pan Am Southern were misplaced.
“First, NS is the last party who would want to see an erosion of PAS’s viability. NS does not have the option to route traffic away from an NS/PAS routing except for the one intermodal train on CSX’s east-west line. As such, NS must maintain PAS’s viability if NS is to remain a competitive balance to CSXT,” NS said in its filing.
Pan Am Southern’s loss of NS intermodal traffic will largely be replaced by carload business CSX will shift to the former B&M, NS said.
How much business is there now on he lines? So carload traffic gets switched to the Hoosac Tunnel Route and what’s left of intermodal goes to the B&A. But it looks like that’s only ONE train a day each way (I’ve seen it 15 years ago an it’s one LONG train pre-PSR days!). So how few daily trains thru the tunnel? In short there’s no longer as much rail business on the B&M as there was 1976-81 when I chased it a lot. Groveton and Berlin were big traffic points for the Conn River. The Groveton mill is out of business and the [former] Brown Co. in Berlin is a ghost of its former self since the ghost of the B&M doesn’t go there even on trackage rights. PASSENGER SERVICE! Pipe Dreams! How much traffic is the Knowledge Corridor getting? I think it’s running NOW but Right Now is not normal. Passenger Service to theBerkshires? TIME! There’s a reason the B&A died in the late 1950’s! Service to New York should go by the Housatonic but again there’s a reason such disappeared long ago. A Cape Cod & Hyannis-type service (anyone here remember the CC&H of 1984-89?) would be the best bet for the Housatonic. You’d sacrifice time but doing away with the “car in NYC” problem is the point plus the social cache of “Going by Rail” which bus just doesn’t have. Getting back to the CSX takeover; probably what NS and others are trying to do is lay the ground-work for a multi-year future for a much-changed US economy as manufacturing and other business comes back home from aboard–if we survive long enough! Remember, a lot of how RR’s operate was set up by the ConRail creation terms 46 years ago.
The Big Fear is that if the CSX takeover goes through–in ten years’ time the Commonwealth commences Big Dig II—the Mass Turnpike North with its Route 2 through the Hoosac Tunnel—the Eisenhower Tunnel of the east! BTW, does VTR have intermodal business now? They used to squawk about piggyback service 50 years ago–but now? Just what do they do? (The oddest place to ask about things like that was the P&W Annual Meetings which were an annual treat! Usually someone in attendance would know the answer. But those are now just a memory and the answer is Secret Knowldge known only to some gnome in the recesses at GeeWhiz
hat’s
I think Watco would’ve been a better choice to run the Pan Am Southern, that way it would’ve been an entirely neutral party in the region(having no current railroads under their banner in the region)!
Wait Gerald, nothing’s over ’til it’s over.
True, but ordering CSX to change from G&W to Watco is out of the STB’s jurisdiction…at least not a direct order, there are ways they can do it though.
One day in 1986, we were stuck on a gridlocked Mass Pike in Allston (Boston) long enough that all three afternoon Boston – Framingham trains passed us. That was 1986, three trains each direction, weekdays. By the time COVID hit 18 months ago, it wasn’t three trains, it was many many trains, and on to Worcester, not just Framingham. On the other side of town, where my family lived, the Old Colony District went from zero trains (actually, not even tracks or for that matter not even a R/W) to a healthy corridor. (Not to mention the adjacent Red Line South Shore Extension.)
So clearly there is a market for trains in the Bay State, and the Commonwealth has done a magnificent job of it. Then along come this donkey-laugh of a proposal for the Berkshire Flyer. What are they thinking?
Charles, what the Berkshire Flyer is is one very wealthy resident of West Stockbridge who wants his 1foot=1foot Lionel train set and he’s paying a certain State Senator who “represents” Berkshire County to get it for him. And in the early days of this initiative and just as the newly- convened BF “working group” was setting a meeting schedule, that state senator was telling everyone that no capital investment was needed for the route in order to launch this service. Imagine that. Giving a capital needs assessment on a property he doesn’t own and that he’s never seen. So predictably, CSX said WE will do the CNA and WE will tell you what it needs, you will not tell us. Yeah, a real all-star this guy is.
MARK – What are you doing in Berkshire County? You’re a Chicagoan. It’s me that’s the Bay Stater.
Speaking of Mark, Western/ Central Mass was the origin of the three other great Marks. Mark Belanger of Berkshire County (R.I.P.), Mark Fydrich of Worcester County (R.I.P.), and Mark Chmura of Franklin County.
Waaaay off topic, my wife is a Pittsfield native. We decided before I retired (she already was) we would move here. I miss Chicago and Metra a lot but from what I’ve heard from friends still in the region, things are really bad there and I’m glad to be here and volunteering at Berkshire Scenic Railroad Museum.
In the 7th paragraph we learn that MassDOT has concerns that the merged companies might not keep track conditions on the Knowledge Corridor (aka the Conn River Line) at the current Class 4. I could be wrong, and please correct me if so, that MassDOT itself, as the track owner, is wholly responsible for maintaining that segment. And then, and somewhat off-topic, in the 9th paragraph, the DOT shows its true colors regarding passenger service on CSX’s Berkshire Sub. The so-called Berkshire Flyer (one train NYP-PIT Friday afternoons/evenings and one train returning Sunday, proposed departure at an unmarketable 245pm Memorial Day weekend-Columbus Day weekend) are trains that, as a practical matter, that we who live here cannot use. There’s a story behind this abortion I won’t go into. And then to further give the middle-fingered salute to those of us who live in Central Berkshire, only two trains PIT-BOS but multiple frequencies SPG-BOS. I will admit, however, that “improvements to Springfield at Union Station as a hub for east-west and north-south service” is a very worthy investment to support those initiatives.