“We did receive notice from CSX of its intent to relocate all train dispatchers back to Jacksonville and we have started the meeting process with the company in an effort to achieve in implementing an agreement if we can,” says American Train Dispatcher Association Vice President Rory Broyles in an interview with Trains News Wire.
Broyles says the labor union received notice from CSX that outlined its intentions to have all dispatchers back in Jacksonville before the end of October 2017.
The business decision would not result in any furloughed dispatchers based on the information supplied by CSX to the union, Broyles confirms.
When asked about the re-centralization, CSX spokeswoman Laura Phelps said the railroad is undertaking a comprehensive of the company’s operations and is making changes across its entire network.
“While CSX CEO Hunter Harrison mentioned in a conference call with financial analysts on April 20 that the number of dispatching offices CSX operates would be under review, CSX has not announced any specific plans to date,” Phelps said in a prepared statement to Trains News Wire in early June.
“If changes are made, the company will communicate them to employees, customers and other stakeholders who may be impacted,” she added.
CSX operates nine major dispatching centers categorized by its divisional territories. The centers include the Jacksonville Division in Jacksonville; Atlanta Division in Atlanta; Louisville Division in Louisville, Ky., Florence Division in Florence, S.C.; Nashville Division in Nashville, Tenn.; Baltimore Division in Baltimore; Chicago Division in Chicago; Albany Division in Albany, N.Y.; and the Great Lakes Division in Indianapolis.
According to a copy of the railroad’s notice obtained by Trains News Wire, CSX would remodel its dispatching center at 3019 Warrington Street in Jacksonville to accommodate all of the dispatching offices.
“After the relocation, offices will continue to be responsible for dispatching the separate territories that they dispatch today,” reads the notice.
The document states the relocation will occur in stages.
“CSXT expects the relocation to begin in or around August 31, 2017 and be completed on or about October 15, 2017,” according to the document.
Ten years ago this month, CSX management announced it would decentralize its dispatching operations in favor of a more efficient operation.
In June 2007, then CSX spokesman Gary Sease told the Florida Times-Union that the relocation would improve the productivity and efficiency of train-dispatching operations.
“We’re taking these dispatching functions out of headquarters,” Sease said in 2007, “and putting them into field offices, closer to where the train operations occur.”
At the time, CSX management said the realignment would result in more effective and efficient decision-making, improved system reliability, and improved train performance.
It was soon thereafter that CSX began retrofitting its divisional offices with technology and infrastructure to accommodate the realignment. CSX dispatchers have since been dispatching trains from those divisional offices.
In January 2016, CSX announced it would dissolve its Huntington Division in Huntington, W.Va., and relocate dispatchers and other union employees to adjacent divisions. The decision affected more than 120 management and union employees.
Many of those dispatchers were relocated to adjacent territories governed by offices in Indianapolis, Baltimore, Atlanta, and a small dispatching center near Cincinnati.
It is not yet clear whether CSX may look to sell the commercial properties that house their current dispatching centers or if the railroad could re-use the buildings.
I mostly agree with Daniel Harmon. Once the relocation is complete and its cost absorbed, the central location should allow for more responsive overall management. As for hurricane concerns, several responses note the rarity of a hurricane hitting Jax. This has been well- documented and is largely due to the city’s geographical separation from the Gulf Stream.
That said, CSX will undoubtedly create a “hot site” total backup center probably using one of the existing dispatching locations slated for shutdown. Atlanta may be an ideal option which could be readily accessed on short notice. There are several utility and major corporate IT operations based in Jax that manage their storm risk in this manner. Bottom line is that if a proper backup system is created, consolidating dispatching in Jax should not present a siginificantly greater risk of operations disruptions due to storm damage than that of locations in other states which are exposed to tornadoes and violent thunderstorms.
A few hurricanes and the Jacksonville location gets shut down. Big storms or a regional power outage and everything goes down. It happened before when everything was in Jacksonville. Murphy’s law will beat the profit margin into the ground.
As I recall, one bolt of lightning, ten years ago, put the Jacksonville dispatching center out of business. I thought that was one of the reasons to move dispatchers back out in the field. If everything goes BACK to Jacksonville, pray for good weather.
The other thing (and this is speaking as a retired engineer): There was a time when each dispatcher had to make at least one annual trip over each branch line, and a trip every six months over more heavily used main lines to keep up their physical characteristics familiarity in order to be allowed to dispatch trains over those territories. You can look at a computer screen until your eyes glaze over, but it’s still not like knowing the surroundings for a personal perspective. Things like grades, curves, and other conditions that affect operation of a train do not show up with those nice colored lines on a computer screen. I once asked a dispatcher why he wouldn’t forward me to the next signal, and his response was that [from his screen] it appeared that the tracks were awfully close together and he wasn’t sure if I had enough room.
When you’re seated in the cab along with the locomotive engineer and witness a train struggling to get up a hill, you take that back to the dispatching center with you and the next time a train stalls getting over that piece of railroad, you understand why.
Oh my, just wondering what will happen in Fostoria, Ohio!!! Our F-Tower which very successfully maintained the rail traffic through our 3 main line double tracks from various districts, was shut down in March, 2015. BTW, 5 clerks (lower pay scale) worked F-Tower with Indianapolis completely taking over our 100 trains/day rail traffic. Some Indianapolis personnel came but how can you understand the Fostoria traffic in one or two days of viewing??? AND were those who came the actual dispatchers who would control our rail traffic??? Those who have been here would understand. NOW, CSX is wanting to move everything to Jacksonville. Heaven help us !!!! As noted in previous comments, sure hope the Florida weather does NOT interfere EVER!!! If you want efficiency in rail traffic, dispatchers HAVE to understand their traffic areas !!!!! I just believe Fostoria will become a rail traffic nightmare. Hope I get the Jacksonville dispatcher phone number. You have no idea how many trains were blocking TOO many crossings waiting to travel through our Iron Triangle after Indianapolis took over. Indianapolis Dispatchers had no idea where the logical areas were that only blocked one minor crossing rather than tie up the whole corridor. Again, understanding the area!!! Big business does not care, unfortunately, they believe they are being efficient. Stockholders run big business, let’s ALL be honest!!!!!
Who centralized in first place?
Just another opportunity to cut jobs and salaries. How many families’ livelihoods will be diminished before Hunter is done with CSX? Good for the stockholders, but this is classic Gordon Gekko material. No soul or conscience whatsoever.
I don’t see what the advantage would be for recentralizing their dispatching. They still have the same dispatching headcount. Perhaps they might save some money by closing and selling buildings but at the cost of uprooting the dispatcher families. With modern communication systems, CSX could dispatch from anywhere in the world with low wage rates. Now that might save big bucks if they could get it past the unions. My old company shortly after I retired outsourced their IT operation to India. Saved lots of money, but service left lots to be desired.
I suspect that weary train dispatchers that left Jacksonville 10 years ago for regional centers will rightly be concerned about another move and many won’t make the move. That would be a great way to cut more salaried positions and tell the unions “we tried ??”
Hurricanes do not “follow” the Gulf Stream for their energy. If that was true, then they would never cross Florida and end up in the Gulf to hit LA or TX. Most of them that approach North America are affected by fronts and pressure domes that move from east to west across the US, as demonstrated last week by Cindy, which was booted further west by a cold front over Alabama and Georgia. Hugo was another infamous example. If it has been 53 years since Jacksonville took a direct hit, then it is overdue. Regardless, putting all the dispatching eggs in one basket doesn’t seem like a very good idea. But hey, if working by remote is good enough for HH, then it’s good enough for the railroad.
10 years ago the Jax center was broken up for multiple reasons. one being the regime at the time believed that having you dispatchers on the division they dispatched gave you and extra little something as they were closer to the people that they worked with and things were hands on…… unfortunately in most of the local centers the dispatchers never got out to see the railroad and meet the people …..this was a bad management practice
by not making this happen especially on a division that you could be anywhere on the division by car in 8 or less hours.
another reason for the center break up was cost …. due to the union agreement and system seniority that was in place in the Jax center you had some dispatchers that were ” professional poster’s” and CSX spent somewhere
around 1.7 million in OT in a year.
Weather and security where another factor in the move 10 years ago.
I think the bigger issue with dispatching being moved to foreign soil comes from the Homeland Security bureaucracy, and not the unions. Good luck finding the political traction to even approach outsourcing domestic air traffic control for the United States to some third world low cost location.
There is no corporate advantage. Just a shareholder one. Temporarily. Party time and then cash out. Lemme guess, no more dispatchers riding the territory and actually learning about the territory they dispatch to understand the geography or track characteristics, because it will now cost too much money to get them from Jax to the outlying subdivisions for their rides.
EHH wants dispatchers close at hand, it increases the fear level inherent in his management style.
The only Hurricane to strike the First Coast (Jacksonville area) in the 20th Century was Hurricane Dora in 1964. Hurricanes follow the Gulf Stream’s warm water current for their energy. The Gulf Stream passes Jacksonville 60-80 miles off shore in the Atlantic and directs the storms to the Outer Banks and shores of the Carolina’s.
What one overlooks about Jacksonville is just how far West it is – it is just about due South of Pittsburgh, despite being on the Atlantic Ocean.
Well someone has to pay for this wrong theft for E Hurricane.You can t fix stupid
EHH has been given a promise from an unnamed source that no major hurricane or tornado will hit Jacksonville during his term in office !!
Yes, it takes dollars to do all this moving around. However, it can sometimes be projected as a savings if enough high salaried employees choose not to relocate. That would give EHH an opportunity to tell the union, gee, we really tried to replace so and so, but could not find a suitable person.
Regarding whether it was a good idea or a bad idea usually depends on the subjective opinion of whomever is in charge at that moment in time.
I never understood why CSX broke up the Dufford Dispatching center in Jax in the first place. It seemed like a costly move with no benefit. It’s the 21st century. An Indiana dispatcher in Jacksonville, Florida sees the same info on a screen as one in Indianapolis, Indiana. As for all the hurricane worriers, there will undoubtedly be a backup site somewhere outside Florida…and it will go unused for twenty years until the next major hurricane threatens Jacksonville…and doesn’t hit it.
Is someone suffering from low oxygen?
And when the next hurricane hits Jacksonville, and they have to evacuate the building, the entire CSX system will shut down completely. That was one of the main reasons for the formation of the regional dispatch centers.
How will this increase carloads and take trucks off the highways? That is what its about. Right?…………wink, wink.
I am going to ask a really stupid question; Doesn’t all this back and forth movement cost money? Isn’t the reason they brought EHH in to save money et al? If having all the dispatchers in Jacksonville to start with was a bad idea 10 years ago, isn’t it a bad idea today? I don’t get it. Can someone on the inside help me out?
So we (Atlanta) went from AI dispatcher Jacksonville to AC Dispatcher Atlanta and back again.