NS "Idling" Buckeye Yard

[ns8401]

It's Official:
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Norfolk Southern Railway will idle Buckeye Yard due to a downturn in business, NS spokesman Rudy Husband told TRAINS News Wire. Operations will cease Monday.
The closure will affect 77 employees; the yard will be idle "until further notice."
Buckeye is NS's ex-New York Central yard on the city's west side.

[CSX_CO]

Not really news, that's been in the works since late last year. Bellevue and Elkhart were to absorb the work being done there.

Practice Safe CSX

[ns8401]

Ok, official "it's happening now ok?..." notes...

[redside20]

NS is idling Buckeye Yd until further notice. note" they are not closing permanently or ripping up any tracks. They will open the yard back up when the economy picks up again. But for now everything is being transferred over to Watkins Road yard. Also the last train out of Buckeye yard is sunday night.

[esprrfan]

Along with this 10/11M are annulled. 184 terminates at Bellevue

[CSX_CO]

From what I've been seeing, CSX's operating ratio was around 76.8. NS' jumped to the low 80's last quarter. NS was slower to respond to the economic downtown, and their midwestern focus on Automotive didn't help the bottom line. They had more employee's furloughed than CSX (CSX has one of the lowest rate of furloughed employee's right now) and NS had 11% of their locomotive fleet idled in storage. My guess is closing Buckeye is a way to cut those costs until traffic returns. Much the same way CSX is curtailing operations in Buffalo. Lets hope for all those displaced employee's they can find new homes elsewhere, or 'chasing their senority' won't last too long. Been there, done that, don't want to do it again, but will if I absolutely have to.

Practice Safe CSX