The Northwest Ohio Intermodal Terminal was designed to support CSX’s hub-and-spoke approach to serving smaller intermodal markets, as well as to sort westbound loads for interchange in Chicago. By sorting container shipments at North Baltimore, CSX could build the density required to provide new or more frequent service to places such as Louisville, Ky.
CSX has pruned scores of low-volume origin-destination pairs as part of its effort to divert traffic from North Baltimore, which lifted more than 809,000 containers last year. No terminal closures have been announced, and some of the traffic is being blended into the merchandise network.
Block-swapping of intermodal loads en route — sometimes involving merchandise trains — will enable CSX to retain and more efficiently handle traffic in the absence of North Baltimore, according to a review of recent train plan modifications.
An example of the service changes involves trains Q135 and Q136, which hauled containers and auto racks between Portsmouth, Va., and North Baltimore. The pair was replaced last week by Q354 and Q355, which run between Portsmouth and Ashtabula, Ohio. (They use the Norfolk Southern Youngstown Line between New Castle, Pa., and Ashtabula.)
The westbound Q355 sets off its Louisville and Chicago traffic at Connellsville, Pa., to be picked up by another intermodal train. It also makes a setout at the new Pittsburgh intermodal terminal.
Everything else — container blocks for Cleveland, Columbus, and Detroit — goes to Ashtabula, where it is picked up by Q391, a Buffalo, N.Y., to Columbus, Ohio, merchandise train. At Cleveland, the Q391 drops Cleveland and Detroit blocks. At Willard, Ohio, it picks up Columbus containers left by other trains and sets out everything not destined for the Columbus intermodal ramp. It then heads for Columbus.
Although the containers lay over in Ashtabula for up to 20 hours, overall transit time remains the same as the old schedule via North Baltimore. Cutoff in Portsmouth is 5 p.m. on Monday, for example, with availability in Columbus at 7 a.m. on Friday.
CSX is making similar changes involving other traffic currently sorted at North Baltimore.
North Baltimore is scheduled to lift its last container on Nov. 11, sources tell Trains News Wire. After then, it continues to serve as a block-swapping yard for traffic bound for Chicago and connections with BNSF Railway, Canadian Pacific, and Union Pacific.
In the above article you state, “Cutoff in Portsmouth is 5 p.m. on Monday, for example, with availability in Columbus at 7 a.m. on Friday.” Does this mean that this yard closes at 5pm. Do rail yard ever close? We are trying to remove and build a bridge over the Baldwin yard in Jacksonville, and with the new PSR, we can not get a block of time to work, we stand around waiting, waiting for the yard master to allow us to work. We get short bursts of time, which any reasonable person would know that is not productive for us and we are losing money, just standing around waiting. So can a yard close we would love 5-6 hours of time to work. Yu would think, they would want us off their property as quickly as possible.
Amazing,What is going to happen to all those cranes in North Baltimore.Would CSX even sell North Baltimore?How about it Jim Squires?
Hey if you can move to four days then go to five or six this guy is a genius. Next seven, as traffic migrates you can run less trains, crews, engines and the operating ratio continues to fall and the jerks who put their money with no clue as how railroads exist, they see how efficient by one parameter Great Hallal as your stock moves down hope you have sold short because it will join Sears and K mart. Too many rail fans fail to know that you can become billionaires as you rape and destroy.
Reminds me of the days when Conrail got out of a bunch of the inter modal movement when they stated making a minimum of 20% profit per lift at a location or it was dropped. A lot of places made 5% profit on all moves but “That’s not profitable enough”.
Lifting 800,000 containers from one well to another seems a strange way to switch ‘cars’. We’d not do it with boxcars! In Europe the single-stack container cars are humped!
EHH strategy is damn the customers. Truckers think in hours, the railroads in days. Take the service or leave it. It is all about the money and greed.
We all know EHH dislikes yard, but these plans sound silly. It’s roughly akin to Delta Air Lines saying they’re going to close ATL.
It’s interesting that Q391 takes a detour at Greenwich junction on its way south to Columbus in order to do a block swap at Willard. This must mean Q391 must continue west another 40 miles to Fostoria before it can turn south toward its destination?
Block swapping is the heart and soul of NS intermodal. Harrisburg and Atlanta are the key locations. If they have good days, the intermodal network works well.
Wondering if NS might be interested in buying N Baltimore?
So this is all basically a money saving game in this instance. It sure as heck is not about better customer service if the transit time remains the same.
They’re all international 40s, service demands aren’t as critical. Just look at the circuity Portsmouth-Columbus compared to NS.
Why not roll Q135 a few more miles to Cleveland? Or all the way to Willard and avoid the trackage rights? Oh yeah. Crew costs.
So in effect EHH is claiming that the benefit of turning the well cars and boxes and a couple fewer days of inventory tied up in transit doesn’t match the crew and locomotive cost savings (assuming the Q135 power gets quickly reassigned after terminating in Ashtabula).
Containers sitting for twenty hours in Ashtabula. How long before the local and traveling burglary crews have a field day with that. And more recent cuts to the CSX police force. Good luck with that
FOUR DAYS to move a container from Virginia to Ohio. What will CSX think of next?
I would think NS beats three days from Norfolk to Columbus.
Mr. Frailey needs to stop his blind worship of all things EHH. I thought he understood how to be successful in this business but it becomes increasingly clear that he no longer is objective in his views.
Setting off and picking up traffic in the winter months in Ashtabula, Ohio where it snows an inch an hour regularly is not wise as far as timeliness is concerned.