The move follows word that came out at an investor conference in March that CSX was reviewing underutilized 150 local yards for potential closure.
According to a bulletin issued to CSX train and engine crews, tracks located within the yard limits of Locust Point are considered to be out of service until further notice. Notice was also given that trains arriving at CSX’s Bayview Yard facility in the northeast corner of the city on the former B&O Royal Blue route to Philadelphia are now to use that yard to service locomotives or for running around cars to work them from the opposite end.
Local CSX freight Y264 will now begin its run at Bayview, and service industries much the same as previously done.
Locust Point Yard is now empty of CSX traffic and locomotives, and all operations have been moved to CSX’s Curtis Bay Yard in south Baltimore on the other side of the harbor, or the former Mount Clare A Yard in southwest Baltimore. The MARC facility at CSX’s former Riverside shops will remain in operation to service MARC Camden Line trains.
CSX has indicated a willingness to continue serving customers in and around the Whetstone peninsula, such as the Maryland Port Administration piers, the landmark American Sugar Refining Corp., sugar plant commonly known as Domino Sugar, the Baltimore Sun printing plant which occupies part of the former Western Maryland Railway Port Covington Yard site to the south of Locust Point Yard, and possibly the BIDS bulk intermodal distribution terminal immediately east of Andre Street, although there are reports that CSX is considering transferring the BIDS Terminal to Mount Clare A Yard, a now-disused yard underneath Interstate 95 in the southwestern part of the city.
Observers believe CSX is looking at Locust Point’s valuable waterside urban property for commercial or residential development. The Locust Point residential neighborhood, surrounded by the loop of track that serves both ends of the yard and the waterfront industries, has greatly gentrified over the past two decades, including the Tide Point commercial development that now serves as the headquarters for the Under Armor clothing brand and a luxury condominium high-rise built into the former B&O grain elevator silos adjacent to the east end of the yard.
Harrison is like a retrenched infection that will resurface when the body thinks it has won over the disease!
One irrelevant yard in Baltimore closes. So what? Blame EHH for what he did. Call CSX America’s worst railroad, which it is. Don’t over-react to every single change a railroad makes.
Plan for the future by abandoning facilities. As the nation’s population and economy grow, the railroad retrenches because “we are just right-sizing for the business we have today”.
Mr. Matthews:
“Baltimore, the birthplace of railroading in the U.S. will now be mostly a run-through city.”
Only if you ignore several other ex-B&O yards still functioning in and around Baltimore City limits: Winans, Bayview, Curtis Bay, and Penn-Mary (the latter in Canton), as well as the intermodal terminal and Seagirt Marine Terminal in the southeast of town next to I-95 and I-895 on the north side of the Harbor.
Also, Locust Point/Riverside was always a “dead-end” yard, sitting inside what was essentially a giant balloon loop with sidings to marine piers and industries jutting off of it. Operationally, it was like a dead-end street or cul-de-sac.
Another disgraceful move by a management team cutting the life out of a railroad that is being destroyed due to “harrison’s disease”
Short term gain, long term loss. Just wait, CSX management in time will get an earful of why this yard was closed when they get slammed with traffic levels that backlog them similar to CN and CP.
Wow. That pretty much takes the “Baltimore out of “Baltimore and Ohio.” Baltimore, the birthplace of railroading in the U.S. will now be mostly a run-through city. Thank you E. Hunter. Hope your hedge fund buddies are happy with their increasing dividends and share prices.