PHILADELPHIA — The Northeast may never again have the levels of rail freight service achieved by Conrail. That assessment comes not from what Norfolk Southern and CSX representatives said during a meeting with shippers Jan. 11, but from what they refused to say.
Doug Kratzberg, an official of the recently merged oil company ExxonMobil, asked during the meeting of the Conrail Transaction Council whether Norfolk Southern and CSX had goals to return rail service to the level that existed before they took over the Conrail properties.
Walter Trollinger, vice president of distribution and automotive services at NS, replied that the situation was different now that there were two railroad systems instead of three. He said current efforts were focused on measuring service improvements on the new systems.
For CSX, Clarence Gooden, its vice president of system transportation, said the aim was to achieve an average train speed of 19.5 mph throughout the entire year. In the most recent week measured, train speed on CSX was 17.6 mph; in 1998, the average train speed in the United States was 19.1 mph, according to the Association of American Railroads.
For the full story, see the Jan. 17 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.
