The consolidation effort will relocate railroad dispatchers and other positions from NS’ Central Division offices in Knoxville, Tenn., to the Alabama Division in Birmingham, Ala.; Illinois Division in Decatur, Ill.; and the Lake Division in Fort Wayne, Ind.
The move will affect a total of about 50 employees who report to the Knoxville office in management, dispatching, and clerical positions. Train dispatchers will have the opportunity to transfer to one of the neighboring divisions or apply for vacant positions across the system. Administrative and clerical workers will be offered opportunities to apply for vacant positions elsewhere, according to the railroad.
NS’ Central Division is mainly responsible for railroad operations in Kentucky and Tennessee, including the railroad’s Cincinnati, New Orleans & Texas Pacific Railway, or CNO&TP route. The former Southern Railway-operated route runs from Cincinnati, Ohio, south to Chattanooga, Tenn.
The division also manages other ex-Southern Railway lines including the Louisville District to Louisville, Ky., and other secondary routes and coal branches running east and northeast of Knoxville.
Norfolk Southern representatives say yard and field operations will continue unchanged despite the Central Division closure. The railroad will continue to employ more than 250 workers in Knoxville in train service and other operational roles.
It is not yet clear how the main line and secondary routes will be divided up among neighboring divisions.
See the news release online.
Gerald:
I was commenting on the map!
@Richard Andre
There’s not a single news release on the NS site about dissolving the Pan Am Southern, a link to this would be helpful.
@Don Oltmann,
Try and figure out which of the 3 divisions mentioned would get the lower volume stuff. if I’m reading the news release correctly, even though there’s not mention of which divisions get what routes, the division is going to be divided up between the IL, Lake and AL(not GA), there’s not a single mention of the Piedmont or GA. Normally when you divide up staffing the routes go with the staffing, makes for a simpler transition if you can get people that know the trackwork to continue to handle it just from a new office.
@Timothy Ekren
I don’t think KCS has any interest in selling the railroad, not with the lucrative Mexico traffic…people bring this up all the time, usually mentioning one of the Canadian carriers, besides the fact that I don’t think it would ever get passed the STB/DOJ review, even without duplicating any services. The burden of proof that is required to justify a merger now is just to great to deal with.
Looks like they dissolved Pan Am Southern too!
Not related to divisions, but KCS trackage seems like it would be a very good fit to the above map and extend NS directly into chemical coast/Mexico markets… Might have a little bit of overlap in Missouri. I’m just surprised why a serious play on KCS has not been made by NS or even CSX. Maybe it has in the backrooms.
A hunch. Louisville to Danville to IL, Cincy to Burnside to Lake, Burnside to Chatt to GA, the rest of the lower volume stuff to Piedmont.