Local sources tell News Wire that CSX officials traveled to Johnston City, Tenn., on Wednesday to meet with local management on proposed cutbacks to the railroad’s former Clinchfield Railroad mainline between Elkhorn City, Ky., and Spartanburg, S.C. Officials met with labor union managers early Thursday morning in Erwin.
The proposed cutbacks would detour most rail traffic, including coal loads and empties away from the Clinchfield mainline, routing them via the railroad’s Corbin, Ky., to Etowah, Tenn. route on the former Louisville & Nashville mainline or the former Chesapeake & Ohio mainline in West Virginia. Sources say this process is gradually taking place now.
The detours would affect most run-through trains on the railroad’s Kingsport and Blue Ridge Subdivisions, including southbound coal loads en-route to utility destinations in the southeast, as well as their respective empties. Run-through grain, ethanol, and other unit trains would also be detoured. Service to local industries in the Kingsport, Tenn., area would continue to be served by a shortened Q696/Q697 manifest train. Currently, the daily manifest operates between Russell, Ky., and Hamlet, N.C., but sources say it may soon operate from Kingsport, Tenn., to Hamlet, N.C.
The proposed workforce reductions would also affect job positions at the Erwin terminal, including several abolished positions in local management, regularly assigned train jobs, and an overall downsizing of existing train service positions. The railroad currently employs approximately 300 workers in various positions at Erwin.
Sources also shared this week that the railroad has postponed further positive train control installations on the Blue Ridge Subdivision.
The approximate 275-mile Clinchfield mainline extends from eastern Kentucky to northwestern South Carolina, traversing some of Appalachia’s most remote and picturesque terrain. The route also hosts the annual Santa Train tradition.
The two subdivisions directly impacted include the Kingsport Subdivision between Shelby Yard in Pikeville, Ky., to Erwin, Tenn., as well as the Blue Ridge Subdivision between Erwin, Tenn. and Spartanburg, S.C. Consequently, these proposed cutbacks would also impact the Big Sandy Subdivision, which connects Russell, Ky., to Shelby Yard in Pikeville.
Trains News Wire reported on Friday that CSX plans to mothball or shutter lines along portions of the former Clinchfield Railroad mainline.
In a conference call with investment analysts on Wednesday, railroad executives said they expect to reduce the overall workforce in the company by 2 percent by the end of 2015 amid declines in coal traffic that are 20 percent lower from the same time in 2014, according to notes of the call transcribed by Seeking Alpha.
In responding to an analyst’s question about what restructuring CSX plans to do to address the coal decline, Cindy Sanborn, the railroad’s chief operating officer, said she thought “everything is on the table.”
“And as far whether it would be facilities or lines, I think you will understand and appreciate that we want to be able to talk about those things internally before we do externally,” Sanborn said. “But there’s really not anything that’s not on the table.”
A CSX news release from early Thursday says railroaders at Erwin will receive 60 days of pay and benefits while many will eligible to bid on jobs elsewhere in CSX’s system. The full release is available on the CSX website.
Trains News Wire will report the latest on this developing story as more information becomes available.
My heart goes out to my fellow railroaders that are going to be affected by this scenario, as I was personally affected by Conrail in Meadville, Pa. in 1982. It only took me 5 years to get back in the rail industry first on the NS, a shortline, MidSouth and finally retiring from the KCS 5 years ago, but only had 37 years instead of the 42 I could have had.
Daniel I'm glad your jeep still runs, beats the heck out of car payments. It sucks for the people involved but don't wish ill on people because bad happens to you. I lost two jobs in five years, but I am a better person for going through the struggle. I hope you can see that one day.
OK Chris, my Jeep Cherokee Sport just turned 300,000 on the ticker and the in line six is still going strong! Keep driving those toys and see where ya go. Parts? Uh huh…nope no parts, just at the toy dealer. Two Escapes have close to 100K and will remain in the family for years to come.
Yes, Karma does bite. Just bit Corbin now too.
And I do feel concern for the CSX workers down there but at least union agreements mean they get to go to other terminals for work. Totally disrupts life as they know it but hey, I was furloughed up here for 12 YEARS and came back to CSX here in GRP. Many went to Richmond, Clifton Forge, Hinton but almost to a man they all came back when recalled to Michigan. I stayed up here, drove truck for the county road commission. Got called back, worked 24 years and retired. Always LOVED the job. Some days more then others though…
Everyone will work through this, always have always will.
And by the way, the abandoned C&O lines up here in Michigan cover hundreds of miles, many of them I had the privledge to run on at one time or another….so it goes.
Once again politics gets into the talk. The only politics involved was the push to deregulate the power industry across America. Peoople were told that getting rid of the power companies and selling off all power generaters would cut rates as they competed , by underbidding each other , to supply you with cheap electricity. With the advent of , currently , cheap natural gas most older coal fired power plants are shutting down. A natural gas fired power plant requires little if any poluution controls. It does not need a big footprint and unlike coal fired plants that need to ramp up and down to run you just flip a switch and a natural gas fired plant is on or off. I have firends in the industry working at plants that were sold off. They no longer work normal hours and in fact work long multiple 12 hour shifts when it is very hot or very cold and then get long breaks when it is "not profitable enough" to run the power plant that day. This is the new normal. Here in New England only one Nuke plant will be left and all the coal fired plants will be shut down.
@ Daniel, really! My name isn't Bubba, It is Chris. I'm not going to discuss market economics with you I understand it. I will address you lack of compassion for your fellow citizens, you are sick and bitter person who wishes ill on people just to have them "know what it feels like" I hope you can run fast cause Karma going be waiting for you when you get there. If your attitude is typical of the circles you run in, it isn't any wonder the auto industry failed, I will go to my job today and be productive and you will be left to stew in your own misery. Oh and the people here will survive and thrive we always have. Oh and the Toyota I will drive today has 230,000 miles on it and still going strong, Detroit can't do that either.
Not quite so.. I suspect that a line closure in Illinois preceded the Clinchfield massacre.
The cut occurred on 7 Aug 2015 when CSX "temporarily" severed about a 100 mile segment of its former B&O East. St. Louis, IL – Cincinnati, OH between Caseyville and Flora, IL.
I reported this to the News Wire on that date and later directly to Jim Wrinn as I found it hard to believe that "The" magazine of railroading failed to report such a significant event. Over two months later, they still haven't.
Sections of rail were cut and removed, taking the line out of service. The railroad is currently busy removing the arms from crossing gates and turning the blinking light warning signals away from the highway. I suspect "temporary" is going to be a very long time and is probably a euphemism for abandonment without having to go through the formal regulatory process – something else that it would be interesting for Trains to report on.
Bryan, Haysi has been inactive for at least 5 years. Last time my brother & I were up there (2010, I think) the big tipple at Pittco-Greenbrier at the end of the line was being dismantled and bad order cars were being stored up there. We were in Elkhorn City 3 years ago and only one dock was loading (the one near the river away from all the other mom & pop loaders that used to thrive between the railroad and the highway). Everything I've seen implies it's gone as well. I couldn't imagine Elkhorn City not having a loadout.
We were called stupid rust belt union member Yankees just a few years back when this happened to us up here in Michigan. Well, welcome to the real world of compitition and free markets Bubba.
Natural Gas is a cheaper, no WAYYY cheaper alternative for electrical geberation. Obama didn't do that the world market did it. Like the low price of gasoline? The free market and fraking did that too.
Live and adapt or become fodder of the past. Thats what all you folks told us when the auto plants shut down. Now your on the other end of the stick…howd' ya like it?
In our area of Appalachia whole towns have dried up and nearly disappeared, I don't care who made what policy or which law, the people who live here are hurting, it is people not policy. The line closures are just the latest domino to fall. We here are the part of America that know one cares about, Tennessee thinks the state stops at Knoxville and Virginia believes theirs ends in Roanoke. But the lives of these people are just grease in the socialist cogs, that continue to destroy everything good and great about our nation. We use to dig things out of the ground and build stuff with it and now we drive to a store and buy it at whatever price the merchandizer thinks is fair, and we live with it because we have too. I pray for the three hundred CSX employees and the contractors who lost their jobs Thursday but also for the one thousand miners in West Virginia that will be losing theirs real soon. A few more towns will die off and more families will lose homes and cars and college educations for their kids, but somebody in Washington will pour themselves a drink and say " we put another nasty old coal mine out of business today, Cheers!
I had figured the old Georgia Railroad was up for the same sort of treatment, but perhaps it might gain a train or two, if CRR traffic is now going to (mostly) take the L&N south via Corbin and Etowah.
Sorry, Bert, but this situation is the result of the extremist environmental policies of this President and his appointed radicals at the EPA. He made it quite clear before the 2008 election that he considered the coal industry Public Enemy #1 in the fight against ( the fraud / hoax of ) global warming. Obama stated in a filmed interview that he intended to regulate the industry out of existence by making the cost of compliance so high that companies would be forced to close down or face bankruptcy. Big Government wins again, and as usual it's the little people who get hurt.
Maybe, if they ran an extension cord to Al Gore's house, they could electrify the old Clinchfield. His meters could handle the load.
What are the chances of that rail line being sold to a short line operator?
The biggest comment I have here is CSX has not tried to find other traffic on line. The area has any number of new potential customers that a smart operator could tap into. CSX is not trying.
Imagine someone from Massachusetts, which has negligible industrial growth, lecturing one in Alabama which is a leader in industrial growth?! Whether Mr. Anderson likes it or not our GDP is growing at one half of one percent. That's essentially equates to no growth at all. But those from a progressive welfare state wouldn't know that.
It does look like this might be the last year for the Santa Train….Not sure anyone is in the mood for a Santa Train. Grinch Train maybe.
It is sad how some people have to drag their politics onto this board.
Not good at all. Glad I got to ride that line twice back in the 80's. Hope they don't take the line up – maybe WATCO if anyone could get it – & certainly Not the Genesee & Wyoming!
And please stop blaming the President for your state''s leadership for living in the past and for their failure to adapt to the current economy. CSX is a market driven company, as are all. If the market ain't there, they're gone.
Jim Norton, This country is thriving and almost recovered from the W/Cheney debacle. Yes, some industries suffer more than others, but it's called market economics. You want a regulated and protectionist economy, move to the USSR. Whoops, it doesn't exist anymore.
The map seems to show a few branches would be affected by this, such as the old Haysi Railroad. So the branches weren't shipping anything?
Dang – I just grazed by the Altapass section of the Loops last month and vowed to return some day. The track at Penland and Spruce Pine looked pretty good. And here I already missed out on the former Virginian in WV.
The Santa trains I assume will run this year but its future appears to be in jeopardy especially for this hard hit area economically.
As far as the old Georgia RR is concerned, intermodal service has saved this line over the years since Halsey Yard was converted to handling containers some time in the late 1980s. There is still a yard in Lithonia which serves among others E.R. Snell Contracting which has an asphalt plant plus a shop for steel fabrication and highway materials. Other industries in the area I believe will keep this line going for a number of years.
Well the end came quickly, being in East Tennessee or Southwest Virginia today and being a railfan is like being at funeral. From what is being reported is that no trains will operate north of St. Paul, Va. the only train north of Kingsport will be a coal train for Eastman in Kingsport, every week or two and will run via the CV to Big Stone Gap, Va. and NS to Frisco, Tn. and then CSX into Kingsport. All NS trackage rights trains will stay the same from St. Paul to Frisco, Tn, with a return to home rails at Frisco, Tn. The only freight train will be an as needed Q696-Q697 from Hamlet, NC to Kingsport, Tn. The power on the line is being moved today to Russell, KY or Hamlet, NC. And other than the two NS locals that visit Kingsport ( Z531 & Z595 ) that will all the activity on the line. There is rumor and wild speculation everywhere today like part of the line being removed North of St. Paul, so time will tell. All other grain, ethanol, coal and rerouted. I hope this will be just a sad chapter in the old lines story, but it looks really grim right now.
In a thriving America this kind of thing would not be possible.