CLEVELAND – Ohio’s Democratic Senator urges CSX to reconsider its decision to reduce its crew base at Collinwood Yard in Cleveland and reassign workers to terminals at Willard, Ohio, and Buffalo, N.Y., saying the decision is bad for railroaders and operations.
U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, in a letter to CSX President and CEO Joseph Hinrichs, says doing away with Collinwood Yard as a crew base will disrupt railroaders’ lives, requiring longer drives for engineers and conductors to report to work. Willard is about 80 miles west of Cleveland and Buffalo is about 180 miles east.
The letter also says the decision to remove crews in Cleveland will hurt the reliability of operations and cause more train delays, as trains will have longer distances to travel without the availability of an intermediary recrew, according to the Senator. He also voiced his concerns about the increased risk for blocked road crossings due to stopped trains.
Trains News Wire reached out to CSX for comment on the Senator’s letter.
“CSX constantly evaluates our train operations to optimize network fluidity and service to our customers. We’ve streamlined some of our train starts at Collinwood Yard in Cleveland, Ohio, to reduce train delays, balance crew availability, improve terminal dwell, and our overall customer service,” says railroad spokesperson Sheriee Bowman.
“To date, this has impacted a small number of employees who will be reassigned to a nearby yard in Willard, Ohio. We will continue to engage with union representatives throughout this process as we assess the success of this operating change and any future adjustments,” she adds.
Collinwood Yard is on CSX’s former New York Central main line and is a main freight artery between Chicago and the Northeast.
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