Eastern Railroad Discussion > Buffalo's Frontier Yard won't be the same

http://www.wgrz.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=66213&catid=37
http://www.buffalonews.com/494/story/653339.html

Union Says CSX Trimming 200 Jobs
Local union leaders tell Channel 2 News that by the end of this week, five out of eight trains that originate in and out of Buffalo will no longer do so. The leaders say they were given the details at a town hall style meeting Monday morning at CSX's Frontier Rail Yard in Buffalo.

James Louis, General Chairman of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, said at least 200 jobs will be lost as a result of the curtailment of operations at the rail yard.

In addition, Louis says they were told within the next few weeks, the hump or switching operations at Frontier will also end.

Jim Louis, general chairman of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, says when the proposal is enacted, the number of railcars coming through the local CSX yard will be reduced by 400 to 500 cars daily. Louis says most of those cars would be re-routed to CSX railyards in Albany, NY or Willard, OH.

Currently, about 1,000 cars pass through Frontier Yard on a daily basis.

Louis says many of the workers his union represents have expressed outrage that they were not informed of the meeting or the curtailment proposal sooner. Louis says he was not told about the meeting until late Friday afternoon.

"Where is the trust?" Louis asks.

Louis also says the curtailment proposal goes against a previous agreement made between CSX and local unions. He tells 2 On Your Side that, at one time, CSX had committed to making upgrades at Frontier Yard that would increase the flow of daily commercial traffic.

"Other industries will be affected by these reductions," he told us by phone Sunday. "At a time when the local GM plant is in trouble, we don't need another local industry going under."

According to Louis, dozens of local companies use CSX to ship their products and raw materials. They include ADM Milling, American Brass, Ashland Oil, Batenfield Oil, Bestway, BFI, Boc Gas, CertainTeed, Chem Central, Chevy Motor-Tonawanda, CO Steel, KP, DuPont, Exolon, FMC, General Mills, Goodyear, Henry & Henry, Lake Erie Recycling, MHF, Nabisco, NOCO, NRG Power Plant, Ocello, Protective Closures, Quebecor, Safety Kleen, Smurfit Stone, Sonwil, Standard Elevator, Stetson Chemical, Stone Container, Sunoco, Tonawanda Coke, Weyerhaeuser, and 84 Lumber.

Kellner says other rail companies could be in trouble if CSX goes through with the reduction plan. Canadian National and Norfolk and Southern both currently use Frontier Yard as an interchange for their trains.

CSX posted a profit of $246 million during the first quarter of 2009. That's down from last year's first-quarter profit of $351 million.

Dave Kellner, TWU Local 2020 / Jim Louis, BLET

CSX to cut 250 workers in Buffalo, union says
By George Pyle
News Business Reporter

In what a local union leader calls the culmination of years of "lies and false hopes" - and a bet against Buffalo's industrial future - CSX Transportation Monday announced plans to sharply curtail operations at its Frontier Yard switching operations and lay off some 250 workers.

A company spokesman would not confirm the number of workers to be laid off. CSX spokesman Robert Sullivan released a brief statement that said, "CSX expects significant reductions at Frontier, but that there are no plans to close the yard at this time. While a small number of reductions will begin immediately, the larger number is not yet determined."

The statement from the Florida-based transportation giant said that daily traffic through the rail yard, now some 800 cars a day, will be cut in half, and half of those cars being moved from Buffalo will still be processed in New York State.

Dave Kellner is president of Local 2020 of the Transport Workers Union. He said the action is an abrupt reversal of what seemed to the be the rail operators plans as recently as six weeks ago, Kellner said, when machinery and crews to upgrade the rail yard's tracks and switching equipment were moved into place, only to be pulled out again a few weeks later.

"We used to be one of the busiest terminals around," Kellner said. But, he said, ever since CSX took over operations from ConRail in 1998, with announced plans to expand local operations and add an upgraded fueling facility, the company's interest in the Frontier Yards has seemed only to deteriorate. The fuel plant was built in Ohio instead and other improvements never came to pass.

"It's been nothing but lies and false hopes," Kellner said. "Somebody needs to be held accountable."

Frontier Yard now employees some 800 workers, Kellner said, and some 250 of them are expected to lose their jobs in the next few weeks. Another 125 workers had already been furloughed in recent weeks, he said.

The yard functions as a switching and sorting facility for the CSX, breaking up trains and recombining them according to their destination. Cars passing through the yard are also subjected to multiple safety checks during their transit there.

The plan to service fewer trains in Buffalo reflects a belief by CSX officials that Buffalo has little future as an industrial center, Kellner said, something already reflected in the reduced business at the General Motors plan in the Town of Tonawanda and at the local American Axle & Manufacturing plant.

Acknowledging that Monday's announcement was not the complete closing of the yard, as had been feared in recent weeks, Kellner said, "Does that just mean they are keeping the night watchman on?"

gpyle@buffnews.com

What a shame! I wonder if Selkirk and Willard can handle this increased traffic?

from what i know, cleveland's collinwood yard will be the big winner. they will start swaping blocks of cars there for a lot of these trains. it will be the busiest it's been in years.

HAHAHAHAHA Collinwood isn't going to win at all. Yes there might be more cars coming in and out of Cleveland but they're not going to add any extra jobs. This just means Cleveland is going to get plugged up and the shortline and chicago line are going to become parking lots. No one wins when stuff like this happens. CSXQ122 out.

i meant winner in terms of carload volume, if it wasn't for autoracks they'd have no business to switch there. i'll say this much, buf was the only place i've seen where they would come out and fix something. everywhere else it's power to the house. they will loose some good people there.

Did Frontier Yard once belong to the Erie-Lackawanna ?

joemvcnj Wrote:
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> Did Frontier Yard once belong to the
> Erie-Lackawanna ?

No, Frontier Yard belonged to the New York Central. The Erie-Lackawanna used Bison Yard.

With traffic down by nearly one-fifth, it stands to reason that yard capacity also needs to fall. It is probably more efficient to run a humpyard closer to capacity, than to run several at 50- 60% capacity.

In good times Willard is so busy, and so backed up, I've heard the dispatcher hold trains, 60 miles out and more from there. One time trains were stacked up from mp 134.7 to mp 124.6. At least 7 trains were in between those mileposts. What is crazy is even in mediocre times, the line from Willard to Greenwich, then north, pretty much always has a train on it, add 200 or 400 cars to that mix, it will be ugly. Honestly does csx think this trash can economy is going to last forever? Personally I think rails' renaissance is done for, however traffic will pick back up, then when Willard cant move any trains, its gonna be hell. It will be like closing the yard in Toledo all over again. As for collinwood, if I'm correct, if they get the traffic, again I think it will create chaos, due to the mainline crew changes, and all the hot shot trailer trains that go through there. Trains switching would be strewn all over the place, tying alot of things up. I'm a believer in not reducing capacity, it doesn't make sense to me why they would want to, yes times are slow, but they wont always be, hell 6 months ago, they were talking about the next 25 years for railroads business is going to skyrocket, and that they needed more capacity, where did that talk vaporize to?

Hate to see anyone lose their job, but there's a lot of garbage comments in the article.

What amazes me the most is that there are 800 employees out of Frontier to handle 1,000 cars a day. Sounds like CSX is reducing costs like any other company in this economy. If and when traffic picks up I'm sure the situation will be reevaluated. I'm not familiar with the traffic through the yard, but I'd bet the depressed auto industry plays a big part in the decision.

Baltimore

im_trainman Wrote:
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> In good times Willard is so busy, and so backed
> up, I've heard the dispatcher hold trains, 60
> miles out and more from there. One time trains
> were stacked up from mp 134.7 to mp 124.6. At
> least 7 trains were in between those mileposts.
> What is crazy is even in mediocre times, the line
> from Willard to Greenwich, then north, pretty much
> always has a train on it, add 200 or 400 cars to
> that mix, it will be ugly. Honestly does csx think
> this trash can economy is going to last forever?
> Personally I think rails' renaissance is done for,
> however traffic will pick back up, then when
> Willard cant move any trains, its gonna be hell.
> It will be like closing the yard in Toledo all
> over again.


And what exactly will stop CSX from reopneing the hump at Frontier once the economy revives? That's what they ended up doing in Toledo.

I'm wondering how this will affect CP trains that originate here?

Simple..

Rerouting.. Anything that runs to Buffalo from Toronto, will possibly change the routing to Montreal via Selkirk. CN trains run thru there as Q620-621.

Anything can happen.. all we have to do is lay back and wait..

TOMT7X

Finderskeepers Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I'm wondering how this will affect CP trains that
> originate here?

Finderskeepers Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I'm wondering how this will affect CP trains that
> originate here?

Just remember that the yard is not being shut down completely.

My suspicion is that interchange blocks will still be delivered to and received from CP and CN. Those blocks of traffic may now be made up elsewhere, though, as opposed to being built at Frontier, depending on where the traffic comes from and how much of it there is.

knowing csx, they will probably rip it up, Im not sure if thats the case. I should have said that in my reply, If they rip it up it will cause future issues, if they leave it in a standby mode, it shouldnt cause too many problems, except for a bit more workload for the time being at Willard or Collinwood. Thanks Toledo for bring that to my attention!


toledopatch Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> im_trainman Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > In good times Willard is so busy, and so backed
> > up, I've heard the dispatcher hold trains, 60
> > miles out and more from there. One time trains
> > were stacked up from mp 134.7 to mp 124.6. At
> > least 7 trains were in between those mileposts.
> > What is crazy is even in mediocre times, the
> line
> > from Willard to Greenwich, then north, pretty
> much
> > always has a train on it, add 200 or 400 cars
> to
> > that mix, it will be ugly. Honestly does csx
> think
> > this trash can economy is going to last
> forever?
> > Personally I think rails' renaissance is done
> for,
> > however traffic will pick back up, then when
> > Willard cant move any trains, its gonna be
> hell.
> > It will be like closing the yard in Toledo all
> > over again.
>
>
> And what exactly will stop CSX from reopneing the
> hump at Frontier once the economy revives? That's
> what they ended up doing in Toledo.

Sounds like extra trains between Buffalo and Selkirk or Willard? So they may loose jobs at one location and need more in other locations? Especially if they outlaw getting into Willard.
RWJ