CSX Describes Plans for Pan Am

In a filing with the U.S. Surface Transportation Board, CSX has detailed its plans to rebuild regional carrier Pan Am Railways once it acquires it.

The plans include rebuilding the mainline over a five-year period, getting rid of older locomotives and installing positive train control over the full length of Pan Am track used by Amtrak’s Downeaster service between Boston and Brunswick, Maine.

Track that is now limited to 10 miles per hour will be upgraded to 25 mph standards. Most of this trackage is outside of lines used by Amtrak of Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority commuter trains and tends to be in Maine.

Yard tracks will be rebuilt to reduce derailments and improve yard operations.

CSX did not say how much its track rehabilitation program for Pan Am will cost.

The CSX filing said Pan Am has 102 locomotives whose average age is 40.6 years. The locomotive plan calls for using higher horsepower road locomotives that will enable the Pan Am fleet to be reduced in number.

Thirty-three Pan Am locomotives will be sold to Genesee & Wyoming’s Berkshire & Eastern, the designated operator of the 425-mile Pan Am Southern network jointly owned by Pan Am and Norfolk Southern.

CSX plans to keep Pan Am’s four-axle units but many of the six-axle units are General Electric C40-8s and C40-8Ws that CSX pared from its own roster years ago.

All of Pan Am’s locomotive and railcar shops will be kept, CSX said.

In time, CSX expects to operate fewer but longer trains over Pan Am, particularly after track is rebuilt for higher speeds.

The CSX-Pan Am merger is currently under review by the STB and CSX hopes to finish the transaction by Feb. 18, 2022, with a takeover date of March 20, 2022.

Tags: Berkshire & Eastern, CSX, Genesee & Wyoming, mergers and acquisitions, Norfolk Southern, Pan Am Railways, Pan Am Southern, U.S. Surface Transportation Board