Eastern Railroad Discussion > Will CSX pull away permanently from Boston ? Or is temporary

In Response to : railpictures.net/photo/658059/

CSX's last freight train in the city of Boston says goodbye for what may be the last time. The predecessors of the Boston and Albany began serving their namesake city in 1839. The B&A came into inexistence in 1870 and the New York Central took control in 1900. The NYC passed to Penn Central, Conrail, and ultimately CSXT. This little freight train is the last direct link in that lineage.

After CSXT pulled out of Beacon Park yard and moved their main Massachusetts freight yard out to Worcester in 2013 this one little local freight still made its way into the city from Framingham, 23 miles to the west. Only a handful of customers remained, the most important being the produce mart over in Chelsea. This was accessed by trackage rights over the MBTA (inherited from the B&M) that date back to the 1950s when the B&A rationalized some of its own trackage over to East Boston. But, on Saturday May 5th the Grand Junction branch connector from the B&A to the old B&M was taken out of service for a period that could last up to 8 weeks. In the interim, CSX's customers are to be serviced by Pan Am's last Boston based local (BO-1). It is suspected that once the Grand Junction reopens that CSXT will just continue to pay Pan Am to provide these switches. If that comes to pass, then this little freight waiting it's turn to head back west at Reading Junction (as an outbound commuter train heads up the Western Route) will be the final act of the B&A in the Boston.....

Posted from iPhone

http://www.railpictures.net/photo/658059/

I suppose in 8 weeks we'll find out.

Posted from Android

AC6000CW_Fan Wrote:
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It is suspected that
> once the Grand Junction reopens that CSXT will
> just continue to pay Pan Am to provide these
> switches. If that comes to pass, then this little
> freight waiting it's turn to head back west at
> Reading Junction (as an outbound commuter train
> heads up the Western Route) will be the final act
> of the B&A in the Boston.....


Boston/New England used to be a great manufacturing era, and now is a great service economy, and CSX knows this (as did CR formerly). After all the retrenchment that's gone on through the years, I highly doubt CSX cares if they come back. Let Pan Am, P&W, and the shortlines shake the bushes for carload traffic and CSX will be more than happy to run full-length trains of whatever type to strategic locations close by that can still serve these markets. It's what they're already doing and have been for years, so why would they care about coming back?? CSX is willing to lop off much bigger sections of its system than this, along with whatever customers are there, to reach their OR and profitability goals, so why ask a question like this one? Answer should be pretty obvious...They've ALREADY pulled away from Boston permanently in essence.

JG



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/15/18 17:10 by jgilmore.

Last time I looked CSX still came into Readville yard which is in the southernmost section of the City of Boston. Framingham to Readville via Walpole.

The original poster should have cited source of the narrative which is the caption for the image on the Rail Pictures website.

RuleG Wrote:
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> The original poster should have cited source of the narrative which is the
> caption for the image on the Rail Pictures website.

He never cites sources, for articles, information, or photos. Posted an FEC photo that was neither taken by him nor his to post.