Current Railroad Operations 2020

[NS349]

I was wanting to know if someone could tell me or direct me on news regarding the railroad current status as far as how they are doing economically due to COVID. I know a while back I did read that Norfolk Southern along with CSX were planning on closures to yards and to focus on (PSR) Precision Scheduled Railroading. And maybe that is really only how operations are going forward, but I cant seem to understand it 100%. So if someone wouldn't mind explaining on how operations are as of now and future of the railroad Id appreciate it. I just hardly ever see freights/locals anymore here in North Carolina.. which makes me concerned. However, it seems trucks are all over which is a great sign economically speaking in my opinion.

Also wasn't sure if this topic was welcomed but I would consider this as under the terms of "General Discussion"

Thanks

[buzz456]

How about here? Go anyone.

[cnwfan]

From the CN aspect here in Iowa, you'd never know there was a pandemic. Between grain and ethanol traffic, I haven't seen a drop in the number of trains here. In fact, traffic is up right now based on the number of times I hear the horn blown for our grade crossing. For a couple of months, the daily east and west mixed train seemed shorter. But trains are back to their normal length, often having a midtrain DPU. Our framing truss manufacturer in town is getting daily carloads of lumber, and I saw 4 flatcars of new John Deere ag tractors sitting in the Iowa Northern yard at Waterloo.

[ElphabaWS]

NS, CSX, UP, etc., all publish extensive performance metrics on their corporate websites, including weekly carloadings, etc. Pretty much anything you want to know you can find.

[NS349]

Thanks for sharing cnwfan and ElphabaWS.

[harryadkins]

The only significant change here in Florence, SC, is that the Amtrak Palmetto has moved from two trains daily to one. CSX freight seems to be thriving.

Harry

[EngineerJohn]

The Lakeshore Limited along with several other big name Amtrak trains were reduced to 3x weekly trips rather than daily. The Empire service still runs, the Maple Leaf to Toronto is no longer allowed to cross into Canada effectively making it an extra Empire Service. CSX up north seems to be doing fine. The big intermodals still come through religiously...

If anything, I wonder if this whole staying at home and buying online is really creating a boost to intermodal traffic? Just a thought.

[BoostedFridge]

The Association of American Railroads collects and reports the data gathered from all of its member roads in North America. Railway Age posts the weekly figures on their website:

https://www.railwayage.com/freight/aar-week-47-intermodal-continues-to-drive-growth/?RAchannel=home

[Schnauzahpowahz]

The FEC line in my backyard is buisness as usual, heavy early hours and nights (as its basically 400 miles of level crossings) with the odd special here and there day time and on wknds. The ports between Jacksonville and Miami dont seem to be hurting

[CArailroader]

This really has nothing to do with COVID but the railroad I work for, Sierra Northern Railway has seen a HUGE increase of traffic on the Oakdale Division. The company managed to secure the west coast's largest grain shipper. That one industry alone is bringing in 500 carloads a month! Management has been talking about turning that division into a 24 hour operation just to handle the grain cars. That still doesn't include our manifest trains of propane and lumber.

On the other side of the coin, our Sacramento Division is getting smaller. We are losing our ability to go from West Sacramento (MP 1.75) to Woodland (MP 16.0) as the Army Corps of Engineers is building a new and improved weir and that will cause us to loose 1000ft of track from the current weir (MP 3.5) to the North (just shy of MP 4.0). This will means Woodland bound freight is trans-loaded at the old passenger boarding area (MP 3.0) which is South of the weir and passenger operations will be "landlocked" between MP 4.0 and MP 10.0.