According to local media reports, Norfolk Southern will close its “Roanoke Distribution Center” and move remaining locomotive shop operations to Altoona, Pa.
One outlet cites a Norfolk Southern news release that attributes the workforce cuts to a nearly 50% decline in coal traffic in the past decade.
Norfolk Southern’s statement follows:
“Norfolk Southern today announced the closure of its Roanoke Distribution Center in Virginia and the planned transfer of the work associated with its Roanoke Locomotive Shop to Altoona, Pennsylvania. Roanoke Locomotive Shop mechanical employees will have the opportunity to transfer to the Juniata Locomotive Shop in Altoona and will be eligible for relocation benefits.
“This difficult but necessary decision reflects the importance of ensuring the company maintains the right mix of people and facilities, in the right locations, to deliver exceptional customer service. This decision follows a 48% decline in coal tons shipped since 2008. Norfolk Southern also has seen a 22% reduction in our locomotive fleet since late 2018, reducing the volume of locomotive maintenance and repair required to operate safely.
“We maintain a longstanding affiliation with the Roanoke area and the many generations of highly talented men and women who have worked for NS in Roanoke, which makes today’s announcement especially difficult. Norfolk Southern will continue its presence and operations in Roanoke, employing more than 650 people in the Roanoke Valley.”
The railroad also said about 85 people — or all mechanical workers — will be offered jobs in Altoona while 19 clerical jobs are to be cut.
More information is available online.
Update: Norfolk Southern statement. Feb. 18, 2020, 11:19 a.m. Central time.
Still do not see the usefulness of placing DPUs in these NS trains
Here again talk about stupidity youre laying off people moving facilities or shutting them down and management goes and HIRES two more pencil pushers , and I,m sure not for $15.00 an hr either, what is wrong with this picture . You need two new DING DONGS that for sure have no railroading experience sitting up in their glass in closed offices saying fire these people close this place just so I can keep getting paid my HIGH SALARY , this just WRONG.
This is just dumb you put all your,e eggs in one basket you need more then 1 repair facility for a railroad like Norfolk & Southern on the east coast its like you don’t just run trains in the Upper north east , but the entire east coast , Upper Management is not thinking straight . I guarantee their not laying off people in management but probably giving them RAISES , the people in the trenches are the ones that make a business successful , not the pencil pushes!
So….. here’s some background.
Back in the late 1950s, the PRR industrial engineers created a plan to maintain the PRR’s 5000 locomotive fleet efficiently at Juniata. The recession of 1958 hit and the plans were shelved. The PRR’s fleet dwindled. Merger with PC, the Conrail was created and all of a sudden, 5000 locomotives! Plans pulled out, funded, shop modernized. Really. A first class facility for maintaining a large fleet of locomotives. Collinwood closed as a result.
Just when it was done, Conrail figured out that smaller Conrail was more profitable and the fleet shrunk all the way down to 2000. Conrail took on insourcing work to fill the void, but the place still had a lot more capacity.
Then, Conrail was split and NS got Juniata. Juniata could have maintained the entire NS fleet at that point, but for a whole host of reasons – likely politics internal and external – Roanoke and Juniata both stayed open.
Moving all the locomotive work to Juniata is really just something long overdue.
This had zero to do with supporting traffic on the “Crescent Corridor”. The running repair shop at Schaefer’s Crossing remains open. It’s not the same thing as the Roanoke Backshop.
At this rate, NS won’t need that new HQ building in Atlanta!
If NS’s inside gateway from metroNYC to memphis is to prosper, how can it be done without service facilities en route? I was under the impression NS had spent a lotof money and effort improving the route with the objective of taking traffic off the parallel interstate.
Which brings to mind a proposal: what if a federal program to save money rebuilding interstates were instituted to refund tax money in proportion to decreased road traffic by using rail? So much per rail diverted ton mile. It would probably more than pay for itself. Thoughts anyone?
I used to wish I worked for the railroads. Now I’m glad I stayed FAR AWAY!!
I get tired of hearing excuses… NS and others knew coal was going to decline and traffic would fall off.. You always prepare for the worst.. Or get a more diverse traffic base so you don’t have most of your eggs in one basket.. NS use to be the thoroughbred of transportation. Now they’re just the thoroughbred of layoffs…
What is the Distribution Center and what does it do? Is the “company stores”?
Kenneth Attenhofer — I agree. I had a longstanding RR employee warn me off back when I was an impressionable young lad.
Yes Jim trucking will win because truckers are working with in the railroads to put them out of business where trucking can bully the nation because trucks will be the only way to move things and when more regulations come we truckers will stop.
One reason for NS traffic declines and parked locomotives — they won’t make reasonable and/or competitive rates for traffic opportunities that short lines and regional railroads are generating.
In the end trucking will win.