Eastern Railroad Discussion > CSX traffic rights on NS Raleigh to Selma

Does CSX have traffic rights on NS Raleigh to Selma?
If not, should they seek to secure them in a UP/NS merger?

Yes they do !

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Simple answer, they can detour that way but it's not needed as a route for them.   Remember NS does NOT own that line, they only lease it - it belongs to North Carolina Railway, which in turn belongs to the State of North Carolina. That's one of the reasons NCDOT can run so many passenger trains out there.  CSX does little traffic (comparatively speaking) in Raleigh as line is a dead end for them.  L619 (Raleigh/Hamlet) and L620 (Hamlet/Raleigh)  are the manifest pair that feeds all the Apex and Raleigh based locals and is the only "road freight" on CSX into and out of Raleigh.  And after making set offs in Aberdeen and for the Apex based jobs on way up, L620 who may have been 100+ cars out of Hamlet is often down to 20-30 cars. Likewise, 619 can be small out of Raleigh and grow significantly by time it's in Hamlet.   Detour wise, if CSX needed to detour off A Line between Pembroke and Selma via Raleigh, they can (though it's been a few years since they have).  Long term, NCDOT and VDOT are working together to reinstall and rebuild the old S Line between Raleigh and Richmond.  When of if that gets done, CSX would once again have a second north south line through the Carolinas. 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/07/26 12:01 by scraphauler.

Thank you scraphauler for your detailed reply.
When the S-line is rebuilt between Richmond and Raleigh, will CSX have trackage rights?

GN1969 Wrote:
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> Thank you scraphauler for your detailed reply.
> When the S-line is rebuilt between Richmond and
> Raleigh, will CSX have trackage rights?

Everything I've read says yes - CSX retaining freight common carrier responsibility on portion in service (Norlina Sub) and reestablishing freight common carrier responsibility on the abandoned section was reportedly part of the sales agreement.   Project is as "shovel ready" as you can get - engineering, environment studies, etc.etc. are all done and various grade separation projects have started on the in service Raleigh to Wake Forest portion, but that's as far as it's gotten.  That's around $2 billion already spent or committed which will result in a new passenger corridor from Raleigh to Wake Forest (and extended Piedmont Trains),  a 25 mph freight line from Wake Forest to Norlina ready to be upgraded and an intact right of way from Norlina to Petersburg ready to build.  Just gotta come up with the several billion to build it, so it's still in the distant future.  But, back to the original question, in the short or long term, there simply does not seem to be any reason that CSXT with it's current operations would have use for trackage rights between Raleigh and Selma.  But who knows how he next few years shake out!  

Only NB/SB Floridian and NS/SB Carolinian between Raleigh and Selma. There is planning for commuter trains but they're a long way off. 

Amtrak has occasionally detoured Dillon-Hamlet-Raleigh-Selma when the A-line had a problem. Big loss of time against schedule. 

Yes, CSX would have rights over a restored S-line between Raleigh-Petersburg. But the problem is that the S-line south of Cary was stripped of most of its sidings... just enough for the two aforementioned road freights and the Floridian. The track is good enough but capacity would be the hangup unless CSX spends a lot of money on trackage that's not part of the SEHSR scope.