JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — When CSX Transportation CEO Jim Foote ordered the hump bulldozed at Tilford Yard in December 2017, he proclaimed, “Atlanta hump yard today is flat. There is no turning back.”
But there is moving forward: CSX is building a transload center on a portion of the former site of Tilford Yard, one of the seven humps the railroad idled in 2017 and 2018 as part of its shift to Precision Scheduled Railroading.
“To better serve our customers and help alleviate congestion in the supply chain, CSX will be expanding our Transflo operations by adding a third location in the greater Atlanta area at our Tilford Yard,” spokeswoman Cindy Schild says.
CSX declined to provide other details on the project, such as its cost or footprint, but the railroad says the Transflo facility is expected to open in January. The facility will handle the transfer of dry goods between rail and truck.
The Tilford Transflo terminal is unrelated to CSX’s acquisition earlier this year of Quality Carriers, a bulk liquid chemicals trucking company.
Kind of going back to the days when carloading companies did the same thing.