(The following story by John D. Boyd appeared on The Journal of Commerce website on February 10, 2010.)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — This week’s severe winter storms prompted CSX Transportation to invoke the force majeure clause, for events outside its control, for service commitments on its important coal and automobile traffic.
Earlier, Norfolk Southern Railway had declared force majeure for traffic moving through several states in the East and Midwest after extremely heavy weekend snows up to three feet deep and warned customers of train delays of up to 48 hours.
At CSX, spokesman Robert Sullivan said “CSX crews worked hard to restore service in the wake of the weekend storm” before the next one blew into its region starting on Feb. 9 and continuing throughout Feb. 10.
That storm was projected to bring high winds and blizzard conditions that would not only add perhaps another foot of snow but also create drifts that could fill much of the track areas already cleared earlier this week.
Such conditions add even more problems for railroads by making it hard for crews to get to and from work on local roads, icing up track switches, knocking down power lines and thereby hampering signal systems, and clogging up rail yards trying to build new trains.