Both CSX and Norfolk Southern are reporting operational impacts from the severe weather that has hit the Ohio Valley and the South since Friday.
CSX, in a customer advisory issued today (Sunday, April 6), says it has implemented “network-wide measures” to address the weather situation. Its South West Region has been most affected, with the railroad highlighting challenges at these locations:
— On the Memphis Subdivision, between Bruceton, Tenn., and Memphis, sever flooding has caused a washout and power outages.
— On the CC Subdivision (Hemphill, Ky., to Bell County, Ky.) and the Henderson Subdivision (around Madisonville, Ky.), traffic has been slowed by weather.
— In the Birmingham, Ala., area, rising waters are creating issues for train movement and a flash flood warning remains in effect.
A Norfolk Southern advisory issued today says “significant rain accumulation” is leading to delays for customers in three areas:
— The A Line, between Memphis and Pocahontas, Tenn. The railroad says that it is collaborating with interline partners to divert some traffic to alternate interchagnes.
— The W Line, between St. Louis and Danville, Ky. Torrential rains have led the railroad to “curtail operations” on an approximately 85-mile segment between St. Louis and Mt. Vernon, Ill.ALl trains elsewhere on that corridor are operating under speed restrictions.
— The CNO&TP — the Cincinnati Southern line between Cincinnati and Chattanooga, Tenn., purchased by NS from the City of Cincinnati in 2002 — is seeing reduced train speeds.
NS says its crews are patrolling and inspecting route, and that in the event of a disruption, efforts will be made to safely restore service as soon as conditions allow.
BNSF Railway, which had two storm-caused derailments on Saturday in Tennessee, had offered its own report on storm impacts earlier [see “Stationary BNSF train derailed …,” Trains News Wire, April 6, 2025].
