Eastern Railroad Discussion > NS spinoff in North Carolina

RJ Corman has posted job openings for Raleigh (verifiable on the Internet). Rumor has it that they are taking over the NS line into Fayetteville, NC (a line from the original Norfolk Southern Railway). It's a slow-speed line but until now has had enough business for NS to retain it. 

Not supposed to be any spin offs from NS under the current leadership

I started hearing about this one probably close to a year ago.  Maybe arranged under the "previous administration?"
 

"Story" is Raleigh to Fuquay-Varina is being LEASED to Corman, and Fuquay-Varina to Fayetteville is being SOLD to Corman.  Line is operated out of Fuquay, I believe "normal" is to Fayetteville during day, Raleigh at night, 5 days a week, but slow orders etc mean they can/do run whenever.  Only "interesting" business line sees is double stack containers to/from Aberdeen & Rockfish interchange in Fayetteville, all handled in manifest service on the regular local.  Otherwise, it's pretty much standard loose carload freight, the mix and volume that you would have expected NS to short line years ago. 

Raleigh is studying commuter rail on the State owned, NS leased North Carolina Railroad between Clayton to the east and Durham to the west.  Additionally, the idea of relaying the missing section of the S Line from near the VA NC boarder up toward Richmond is moving forward. In addition to the documented progress in property acquisition and funding, NCDOT has some grade separation project starting on the Norlina Sub in anticipation of it becoming a passenger corridor.  The Raleigh to Fuquay section NS is only reportedly leasing to Corman would make a natural extension for commuter rail going into the rapidly growing burbs of Fuquay-Varuna and Holly Springs, which could be why NS is only leasing it, if there is any truth to the line sale rumor in first place.

https://www.axios.com/local/raleigh/2022/08/22/commuter-train-raleigh-durham-research-triangle

Just throwing this out there as nothing but pure speculation, but another possible explanation of the Raleigh based jobs Corman is posting could be VinFast.  The job posting reads RJ Corman Railroad Switching Company.  Could be poor editing on a copy/paste from a different posting.  Could be that it really is a switching contract and not a railroad.  VinFast (a Vietnamese car company with close ties to GM and BMW) is building their first North America assembly plant in Moncure NC, just south of Raleigh on the CSX S Line.  Vehicle Assembly plant, EV Battery plant, etc - 7000 employees, 200,000 cars and SUVs a year.  Vietnamese assembled vehicles go on sale in the US next year. They want vehicles rolling off Moncure line in 2024.  To meet the crazy tight deadlines, I could see VinFast awarding one contract to someone to handle "rail". Design, build, operate, and maintain all in one big contract. Just a crazy thought. 



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 11/07/22 19:53 by scraphauler.

It;s official - the Raliegh & Fayetteville Railroad   R. J. Corman Railroad Company, LLC Announces Agreement to Purchase 19th Railroad | R. J. Corman Railroad Group (rjcorman.com)

I assume that RFCC will have trackage rights through Boylan in Raleigh to the ex-NS Glenwood Yard. With the elimination of the ex-Southern small freight yard at the former Southern passenger station site and the reduction of tracks at the Prison and the former Cargill facility, there's not really anywhere else. This means that three RRs (NS, RFCC, and CLNA) could be in the yard at the same time.