Eastern Railroad Discussion > CSX line sales

Well, after the "8000 mile announcement" a couple of months ago, in which CSX said something to the effect of "we'll be offering a new sale package every few weeks", has anything happened?

Here in the south, we all have kind of been waiting on things like:

--The SAL west of Baldwin--find a buyer yet?
--The W&A lease with the State of Georgia--did it get signed or not?
--The Clinchfield--not as sleepy as two years ago, but what's the plan?
--The Georgia Sub--same as above, but verrry sleepy--for sale or not?
--The "Bow Line" (Dothan Subdivision)--a seeming natural to connect various G&W properties; why keep it?

I'm sure if there WAS any news on any of the above, it would have been publicized. Any information or discussion is welcome. Thanks.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/23/18 15:42 by SCL1517.

well, first, have they actually been officially put up for sale? You can't buy something unless it is for sale. Admittedly, I do not read everything on TO. Maybe they were and my comment here is wrong. Talk is cheap, facts are often not....

Any corporation has to make such announcements to please investors these days, to try to convince them that the company is looking to divest of the lesser performing lines/products...
Just because word might come out that Company C or Company N is "exploring the possibility of divesting itself of product/line A and/or B" doesn't mean that there is actually any real thoughts of doing it...

In this instance, perhaps, no news is good news.

These sales take quite a long time.
It's one thing to say you will sell, it may be another when the economic analysis is done.
The low hanging fruit is long gone. On regional lines, it can be very challenging to produce the right numbers.

For most of the lines the announcement was "looking at the line to determine if it should be sold". Only a couple of lines were actually put up for sale at the time of the announcement. If anyone is interested in buying one of the other lines (for non-passenger use) they can contact CSX.

prrmpup Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> These sales take quite a long time.
> It's one thing to say you will sell, it may be
> another when the economic analysis is done.
> The low hanging fruit is long gone. On regional
> lines, it can be very challenging to produce the
> right numbers.

Part of the problem is that the class ones try to keep all of good meat for themselves and then try to sell off only the fat and gristle, or put up paper barriers that kind of defeat the purpose of buying the line.

I go back to my first comment about 'officially put up for sale'. I said that because usually a RR will make an official press release on such matters. But it is not law. But, if you do want to sell a line, and have it open to competitive bid, you have to define what you are selling. This is usually done by stations or mileposts. For example, selling the 'Clinchfield' what does that really mean? Technically it would be from Elkhorn City, KY to Spartanburg, SC. But to others it may be the entire route from near Russell, KY to Augusta, GA and south, and that involves at least three prior RR's. But, like I said, it is not law after Staggers. A seller can privately negotiate with a buyer or lessor without making it public. This is what happened to the lease by NS of the Delmarva lines to another carrier rather than the MDDE which was well established there and Conrail was dealing with them for a sale when the Conrail takeover occurred and everything had to be stopped. They were shocked when another short line operator....of ex-CR lines...got it. And also, if a railroad sells a route that has connections to potential competitors, it cannot legally prevent those connections. but It can seek favorable arrangements. Almost all the lines aforementioned have connections to CSX competitors.

So maybe CSX has secret negotiations for some of the lines on-going, which I understand is legal. I know, if I were young and very rich, I would jump on some of them, but I am not. Most of my advice above does not come from me but a former boss who is very high up at a very successful Regional railroad.