Eastern Railroad Discussion > CSX Launches Carolina Connector Intermodal Service

On Thursday 11/18/21, CSX held a ribbon cutting at its new Carolina Connector container terminal (aka CCX) located near Raleigh, NC: 
https://www.progressiverailroading.com/csx_transportation/news/CSX-NCDOT-open-Carolina-Connector-intermodal-terminal--65253

According to CSX on-line intermodal schedules (https://next.shipcsx.com/#/plan/schedules/intermodal), CCX features container only service lanes from 4 western originations via manifest train Q415 from Cumberland MD and to 11 western destinations via Q416 to Cumberland.

Eastbound originations are Bedford Park (via I016 - 3 days transit time), NW Ohio ICTF (via I138 - 4 days transit time), East St Louis (I008 - 6 days transit time), and Portland, OR (off UP via NW Ohio ICTF?).

Westbound destinations are the 3 CSX destinations of Bedford Park (via I015 - 4 days transit time), NW Ohio ICTF (via I135 - 4 days transit time), and East St Louis I007 - 6 days transit time) plus 8 destinations on UP of Denver, Laredo, Las Vegas, Lathrop, CA, San Anonia, Salt Lake City, and Tacoma presumably via NW Ohio ICTF. 

I'm guessing that the I137/I138 Penn Mary - Chicago trains handle the CCX containers between Cumberland and NW Ohio ICTF to make Chicago/E St Louis/UP connections?

Here's a screen capture from the Ashland VA live cam from this morning (Saturday 11/20/21) of what I'm guessing is Q415 passing south at 0625 with a healthy load of 60 JBHU, CSX, Pacer, & UMax domestic containers tacked on the tail of the train. 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/21/21 03:02 by JPB.

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so how soon is philadelphia and new jersey getting a service lane?

nick

Posted from iPhone

Q415 and Q416 have been operating in and out of Cumberland, MD with a cut of stacks on the rear for the last couple weeks.

JPB Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> On Thursday 11/18/21, CSX held a ribbon cutting at
> its new Carolina Connector container terminal (aka
> CCX) located near Raleigh, NC: 
> https://www.progressiverailroading.com/csx_transpo
> rtation/news/CSX-NCDOT-open-Carolina-Connector-int
> ermodal-terminal--65253
>
> According to CSX on-line intermodal schedules
> (https://next.shipcsx.com/#/plan/schedules/intermo
> dal), CCX features container only service lanes
> from 4 western originations via manifest train
> Q415 from Cumberland MD and to 11 western
> destinations via Q416 to Cumberland.
>
> Eastbound originations are Bedford Park (via I016
> - 3 days transit time), NW Ohio ICTF (via I138 - 4
> days transit time), East St Louis (I008 - 6 days
> transit time), and Portland, OR (off UP via NW
> Ohio ICTF?).
>
> Westbound destinations are the 3 CSX destinations
> of Bedford Park (via I015 - 4 days transit time),
> NW Ohio ICTF (via I135 - 4 days transit time), and
> East St Louis I007 - 6 days transit time) plus 8
> destinations on UP of Denver, Laredo, Las Vegas,
> Lathrop, CA, San Anonia, Salt Lake City, and
> Tacoma presumably via NW Ohio ICTF. 
>
> I'm guessing that the I137/I138 Penn Mary -
> Chicago trains handle the CCX containers between
> Cumberland and NW Ohio ICTF to make Chicago/E St
> Louis/UP connections?
>
> Here's a screen capture from the Ashland VA live
> cam from this morning (Saturday 11/20/21) of what
> I'm guessing is Q415 passing south at 0625 with a
> healthy load of 60 JBHU, CSX, Pacer, & UMax
> domestic containers tacked on the tail of the
> train. Having said that, the train log at the
> Ashland live cam (a more knowledgeable info source
> than I am!) identified this southbound manifest as
> Q409 originating in Selkirk. As double stack
> containers can't operate  through Baltimore,
> perhaps these containers were picked up in
> Richmond? I'm a bit confused....

Not sure how I137 would make a connection to I007 for East St. Louis

Posted from iPhone

if we are lucky maybe we’ll have as many intermodal trains on the cumberland sand patch line as on the pittsburgh line

nick

Posted from iPhone

Interesting. I wonder if the Laredo and San Antonio lanes run on the East StL service and interchange at Dupo.

Six days to East St. Louis.  Are you kidding me?  No serious shipper would accept that schedule.  They will have it trucked.  

Hmm, I guess they won't be sending anything through Atlanta then. I know it's just getting started, but still, I was hoping for a return of intermodal on the Abbeville due to this facility.

MEKoch Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Six days to East St. Louis.  Are you kidding
> me?  No serious shipper would accept that
> schedule.  They will have it trucked.  

Couldn't agree more. They must be offering some really cheap freight rates to get any business at those transit times. That's down right embarrassing.

MEKoch Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Six days to East St. Louis.  Are you kiddingme?  No serious shipper would accept that schedule.  They will have it trucked.  

It's about 800 miles.  Probably 2 days for a truck.  Including rest.  

MEKoch Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Six days to East St. Louis.  Are you kidding
> me?  No serious shipper would accept that
> schedule.  They will have it trucked.  

These are the same shippers that are OK with a cargo box taking over a month to travel from Asia on a boat.  A couple of days will not upset them for the right price.  Not all traffic is time sensitive.

... and that's related to the low profit margin that CSX reports on intermodal. They're bottom-fishing in the market for customers who are price-sensitive and delay-insensitive. If you play that game, you'd better slash your operating costs to the minimum. 

While I’ve only seen a handful of Q415/Q416 trains with IM pass the Ashland live cam since I recently started looking in on this IM business, the vast majority of containers in these service lanes appear to be domestic cube boxes (eg JBHU, CSX, UMax, Pacer). And some days, these long manifest trains haul zero containers.

Posted from iPhone



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/22/21 08:59 by JPB.

JPB Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> While I’ve only seen a handful of Q415/Q416
> trains with IM pass the Ashland live cam since I
> recently started looking in on this IM business,
> the vast majority of containers in these service
> lanes appear to be domestic cube boxes (eg JBHU,
> CSX, UMax, Pacer)
>
> Posted from iPhone

Which means nothing.  There are large warehouses throughout Southern California that unload marine boxes and reload the items into domestic' boxes.

Typhoon Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> JPB Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > While I’ve only seen a handful of Q415/Q416
> > trains with IM pass the Ashland live cam since
> I
> > recently started looking in on this IM
> business,
> > the vast majority of containers in these
> service
> > lanes appear to be domestic cube boxes (eg
> JBHU,
> > CSX, UMax, Pacer)
> >
> > Posted from iPhone
>
> Which means nothing.  There are large warehouses
> throughout Southern California that unload marine
> boxes and reload the items into domestic' boxes.

Means something to me, and I'm sure others who are interested in operations and service patterns.  Marine containers are usually services tailored to marine shipping companies (ie related directly to ocean going shipping lines), where domestic containers are more related to domestic companies, regardless of where the actual contents of the container was made.

irhoghead Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> MEKoch Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Six days to East St. Louis.  Are you kidding
> > me?  No serious shipper would accept that
> > schedule.  They will have it trucked.  
>
> Couldn't agree more. They must be offering some
> really cheap freight rates to get any business at
> those transit times. That's down right
> embarrassing.

I don’t see an easy place to block swap this traffic. Any traffic on I007/I008 would have to go all the way to up state NY then down to Little Ferry, NY then be transferred to I035/36 or similar to get down to the Carolinas. (Not to forget it has to be single stacked) Easily get 6 days with that many out of route miles.


I guess after they have enough traffic to justify its own train then add one that runs via Sandpatch and get the travel times down to 3-4 days.

Be easier just to add a St Louis to NWO (North Baltimore, OH) train then block swap there.

Re: the question of what is the container traffic routing between E St Louis and Carolina Connector at Rocky Mount, NC, according to the ShipCSX web site, all eastbound container traffic from E St Louis departs on priority intermodal train I008 with the following 9 destinations:
1.) Carolina Connector via intermediate connection to Q415 (6 days)
2.) Chambersburg via intermediate connection to I016 (4 days)
3.) Elizabeth Marine Terminal via connection to I162 at DeWitt Yard Syracuse (2 days)
4.) N Bergen NJ directly on I008 (2 days)
5.) Portsmouth VA APMT via intermediate connection to F763 (12 days!)
6.) Portsmouth VA NIT via intermediate connection to F763 (17 days!!)
7.) Pt Newark NJ vi connection to Q212 at DeWitt Yard (3 days)
8.) DeWitt Yard Syracuse directly via I008 (2 days)
9.) Worcester MA via connection to I022 at DeWitt Yard (2 days)

As to the intermediate connection between I008 and Q415 for both Chambersburg and Carolina Connector, perhaps I008 drops those containers at Avon Yard at Indianapolis which are then forwarded on manifest Q332 to Connellsville. As I016 works Connellsville, it could collect containers for Chambersburg while Q370 (Clearing Yd Chicago to Cumberland) could forward the Carolina and Portsmouth containers to Cumberland for connection Q415 bound for Rocky Mount NC. And something similar could apply for westbound containers from Carolina/Portsmouth/Chambersburg - forwarded via Q369 and Q331 to I007 at Avon Yd. Just a WAG....

Also, here's an Ashland VA screen capture of Q415 passing by at 1250 Tuesday 11/23/21 with 72 single & double stacked domestic containers up front.
 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/24/21 03:51 by JPB.

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