PARKERSBURG, W.Va. – CSX Transportation will lease its 39-mile Marietta Subdivision and related trackage in West Virginia and Ohio to a short line operator.
Employees on the line, which runs from Parkersburg, W.Va., to Marietta and Relief, Ohio, were informed of the pending transaction in a letter dated Wednesday.
Belpre Industrial Parkersburg Railroad, which will be operated by Ohio-based holding company Cathcart Rail, expects the deal to close on or around May 2. The short line will employ eight people, including four train service personnel, two in maintenance of way, one track inspector, and a locomotive mechanic.
BIRP will operate the 5.29-mile Parkersburg Running Track from High Yard in Parkersburg across the Ohio River to Belpre, Ohio, as well as the Marietta Sub.
The route was put on the block in June 2018 along with five other low-density lines totalling 650 miles.
At the time, CSX said it was committed to ensuring that local operators maintain service and seek to grow traffic volume.
“CSX is reviewing every aspect of the company’s network to be sure that each asset is maximized for efficiency and adds value to our company’s long-term business needs,” CEO Jim Foote said in the June 2018 line sales announcement. “We believe these efforts will identify a robust pipeline of opportunities that will deliver material value to CSX over the next several years.”
The possible use of this trackage (Parkersburg to Marietta and onto Relief} should be enticing to a tourist line operator. In the past, there has been talk of just that.
And, their locomotives will be????
Correct John. The plant was closed due to the illegal actions of the EPA. When the case was finally won, the plant was already shut down and dismantled. AEP Ohio is installing gas turbines all over the area but not big ones at the old location of the coal fired plant. As far as I know, the only thing active left at Relief is Globe Metallurgical. I doubt that they do enough traffic to keep the branch above Marietta alive for long. Most of the traffic is in the area around Belpre and and up to the Eramet & Solvay plants. ProFusion ( former BFG plant ) still has tracks last I knew at Oak Grove but who knows how much traffic they would provide. My guess is that the track above Marietta will be rail banked in the near future. It will likely face the same fate as the rest of the branch North of Relief. And like the PRR branch that ran thru our farm. The writing was on the wall for the trackage when the track from Clarksburg to Parkersburg was disconnected and the track from Belpre to Cincinatti was removed/railbanked. CSX has rued that decision but nothing can be done about it now US 50 took part of the ROW.
“A robust pipeline of opportunities”. Wow.
AEP closed and tore down the power plant (Muskingum River Plant) at Relief, thus no need for coal trains.
I worked this line as a conductor when I was with CSX. It had a good bit of local traffic up to Marietta. At the end of the line at Relief is an AEP power plant and another business. The other shipper had stopped using rail because of issues with service. If memory serves me correctly an old head conductor had bid on the job and didn’t give a rats rear end about serving customers. A lot of petrochemical business hen I was there.
Parkersburg & Ohio would be a good name.
BIRP. A very interesting acronym.