ORDC Supports 4 CRISI Grant Applications

The Ohio Rail Development Commission has approved supporting four grant applications to the Federal Railroad Administration.

The four projects are seeking a collective $52 million in federal Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvement grant funding.

The four projects include a $4.3 million project by R.J. Corman to rebuild track near Dover and Clinton. The track rehabilitation would eliminate slow orders and restore FRA Class II track speeds.

In the Cincinnati region, Norfolk Southern, CSX, and Genesee & Wyoming, are cooperating to review and establish priorities for projects that would reduce congestion in the vicinity of /Queensgate Yard.

The Kanawha River Railroad and NS are seeking $32.5 million to rebuild a rail route between Columbus and Cornelia, West Virginia.

NS owns the track but rail operations are conducted by the KRR, a subsidiary of short line holding company Watco.

The project will eliminate slow orders and restore Class II track speeds across the line.

In western Ohio, the Napoleon Defiance & Western is seeking $13.2 million to complete rehabilitating track between Defiance and Napoleon.

The project would bring the entire line back to a state of good repair.

Cincinnati Street Still Closed by CSX Derailment

A Cincinnati street closed earlier this week due to a CSX derailment is expected to remain closed through Friday.

Gest Street, which passes beneath the Queensgate Yard complex, was closed after the derailment last Sunday.

Gest remains closed between Evans Street and Dalton Avenue while clean up crews remove the wreckage, which involved two locomotives and seven freight cars.

Railroad officials also said the bridge will need to be inspected before vehicular traffic can pass beneath it again.

CSX officials said that although the cause of the derailment remains under investigation, there is no indication that remote operation of one of the locomotive contributed to the derailment.

CSX Derails 7 Cars, Locomotive in Cincinnati

No injuries were reported after a CSX train derailed in Cincinnati early Sunday morning atop a bridge near Queensgate Yard.

The derailment caused a fuel leak of 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel and left seven cars piled up on the bridge over Gest Street.

A portion of the yard was closed due to the leak. The derailment was reported to have occurred about 1:30 a.m.

CSX said in a statement that the leak came from a locomotive and no rail cars leaked or spilled any of their contents.

Cincinnati’s Metropolitan Sewer District activated the Millcreek Dam as a precautionary measure to prevent any of the spilled fuel from flowing into the Ohio River.

The CSX statement said no waterways were adversely affected and the fuel spill had been contained.

Gest Street was closed between Dalton Avenue and Evans Street but was expected to reopen Sunday night.

An on line report said the derailment cut off access to CSX’s Indiana Subdivision as well as traffic moving on the Central Railroad of Indiana.

That report said much of the wreckage had since been cleared from the bridge by Sunday afternoon.

A CSX spokesman told the Cincinnati Enquirer that the locomotive working the train was a remote control unit.

The derailment also took down several power lines in the area.

CSX to Keep 4 Humps, Unload Some Trackage

CSX plans to keep four hump yards but is reviewing other “underused” facilities, including 8,000 miles of trackage that may be abandoned or sold.

CEO James Foote disclosed the plans during a speech to the Wolfe Research Global Transportation Conference.

“We’re doing a good job of analyzing about 8,000 miles of railroad and trying to determine what segments fit into  . . . three baskets,” Foote said.

He identified those are core and non-core routes, and lines that are somewhere in the middle and need further analysis to determine whether they should be retained or spun off.

The hump yards that CSX plans to keep open for now are located in Waycross, Georgia.; Selkirk, New York; Indianapolis (Avon); and Cincinnati (Queensgate).

Foote said Waycross and Selkirk are anchors in their regions of the CSX network.

Avon and Queesgate have been processing cars at record levels. CSX briefly closed Avon Yard as a hump and talked about moving its yarding duties to smaller yards in Indianapolis but backed away from those plans after its network became congested.

CSX will continue to seek to consolidate underused local switching and support yards in an effort to find more efficiency gains.

Foote contended that railroad’s financial goals for the next three years are not necessarily contingent on selling off routes.

One of those objectives is to have a 60 percent operating ratio which is the percent of revenue that is being devoted to operating expenses.

“This is not something that was in the plan that says if we don’t do this we can’t hit a 60 operating ratio,” Foote said. “This is totally separate and independent. And again to a large degree, it goes back to learning, understanding the complete footprint of the CSX network and how it should be most efficiently and effectively run.”

The financial plan, which governs operations through 2020, calls for cost-cutting, efficiency gains and revenue increases.

This include selling real estate, which is expected to net $300 million. The plan also identified $500 million in potential line sales.

CSX said it is talking with numerous would-be buyers who have expressed interest in routes the Class 1 carrier might be willing to sell.

The carrier has said it doesn’t have a target number for how many miles it wants to sell or abandon.

Chief Financial Officer Frank Lonegro said that management recently held an “intense dialogue” about core and non-core routes with the company’s board or directors.

Lonegro said management outlined what routes were considered part of the core and which lines no longer fit into CSX’s plans.

“Precision scheduled railroading has clearly given us the opportunity to look more at redundant routes and branch lines that don’t carry very much traffic,” he said.