WASHINGTON – CSX has nearly completed track and signal upgrades on the former Pan Am Railways, which the Class I says has improved service and will jump-start traffic growth in New England.
When CSX acquired Pan Am for $600 million in 2022, the threadbare 1,700-mile regional railroad’s former Boston & Maine and Maine Central routes were a study in deferred maintenance. Pan Am Railways was largely a 10-mph railroad wherever it did not carry Amtrak or MBTA commuter trains. So CSX pledged to spend more than $100 million to improve Pan Am’s track, yards, and bridges.
“Now that the railroad is up to the service levels that we expect and that our customers expect, what we’re seeing as we’re increasing the velocity of that network, as we’re increasing the reliability, the amount of opportunities coming our way are significant,” Chief Commercial Officer Kevin Boone said at the railroad’s investor day last month. “We expect outsized growth in the New England region based on the investments we made, and we have not realized those growth opportunities yet. We see those really materializing over the next three years.”
In its merger application, CSX said it would boost Pan Am’s 10 mph track speeds to 25 mph. But CSX has outdone itself, partly with the help of grants from the Federal Railroad Administration: Much of the Pan Am main line is already or soon will be 40 mph trackage, according to CSX’s latest update to the Surface Transportation Board.
The improvements mean CSX soon will be able to operate at a minimum speed of 40 mph virtually all the way from Worcester, Mass. – junction with CSX’s former Boston & Albany main line – to Mattawamkeag, Maine. Faster speeds are possible over trackage operated by the MBTA as well as the trackage that hosts Amtrak’s Downeaster service.
The largest customer in former Pan Am territory – Sappi North America, which operates paper mills in Westbrook and Skowhegan, Maine – plans on increasing its use of rail.
Mike Segal, Sappi’s director of logistics and operations planning, said in an investor day video presentation that he appreciates CSX’s improved service, responsiveness, and communication. “I’ve been very pleased with our relationship with CSX because I feel like they really understand our challenges and our network,” Segal says.
CSX and Sappi have collaborated on service improvements and standards since the Pan Am acquisition. “We really appreciate the honesty in the relationship and the visibility in terms of how things are operating,” Segal says.
Arthur Adams, CSX’s senior vice president of sales and marketing, says that was not the case initially. “I can tell you the first time we sat down three years ago, it was a very different conversation,” Adams recalls.
When CSX began operating Pan Am, Sappi was re-evaluating its transportation options – and how much of a role rail and truck were going to play.
“Thankfully we were there at the right time,” Adams says. “And so we went to work developing KPIs [key performance indicators], making commitments, honoring those commitments and earning back that trust.”
Pan Am line segments upgraded to 40 mph include portions of the Worcester Main Line from Worcester, Mass., to Ayer, Mass., where possible; 20.7 miles of the former B&M Portland Subdivision between Lowell Junction, Mass., and Ayer, Mass.; 71.7 miles of the former MEC Waterville Subdivision between Royal Junction Maine, just east of Portland, and Waterville, Maine, thanks to a CRISI grant.
Next up: The 112.6 miles of the former MEC Eastern Subdivision from Waterville, Maine, to Mattawamkeag, Maine, the interchange with Eastern Maine Railway and its link to the Port of Saint John, New Brunswick. “CSX has already completed significant work on this line, including laying new continuous welded rail, installing ties, and resurfacing the entire line, which increased the maximum speed limit to 25 mph …” CSX said in its STB update. “While awaiting final approval of a revised scope of work for this grant, CSX, on its own, has installed nearly 50 track miles of continuous welded rail and replaced approximately 47,000 ties, increasing the maximum speed limit on the entire line to 25 mph. Once the revised scope of work is approved, CSX expects to complete additional work on the line using grant funds, which will increase the maximum speed limit on the entire line to 40 mph.”
In addition, most of the Portland terminal district has been upgraded to 30 mph, with the rest to follow next year. CSX upgraded several branch lines to 25 mph from 10.
CSX also has completed its portion of the work on six of the seven bridges that will need to have improved clearances to allow for double-stack trains on the Worcester Main Line. CSX expects work on the seventh bridge will be completed soon.
The projects will allow Norfolk Southern to shift its Chicago-Ayer intermodal trains off the Pan Am Southern route between Mechanicville, N.Y., and Ayer, which includes the 4.75-mile Hoosac Tunnel that can’t accommodate domestic double stacks.
On June 1, 2025 the NS trains will begin rolling on CSX trackage rights between Voorheesville, N.Y., and Worcester, and then on a section of Genesee & Wyoming’s Providence & Worcester and on up the former Pan Am Railways to Ayer.
I wonder if this will mean the end of all traffic through Hoosac Tunnel, not just the end of container traffic.
That’s the American way, Laurence. Squeeze almost all freight headed from USA points into New England (and one Amtrak train pair) onto CSX, a single-track mountain railroad.
And most at tax payer expense with all these FRA and CRISI grants… But I guess you have to spend it in something…