(The following article by Ed Ronco was posted on the Grand Rapids Press website on June 28.)
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — CSX employees along two rail lines are getting ready for big changes.
The lines — one from Grand Rapids to Ludington and another from West Olive to Fremont — are for sale.
Deals appear to be in the works for both, although nothing is final.
The lines are called “subs,” the rail equivalent of interstate connector highways such as Int. 196.
The two subs up for sale comprise 175 of the 812 miles of track that CSX, a Florida-based railroad freight firm, operates in the state.
Under deals yet to be negotiated, Marquette Rail Corporation is expected to pick up the Ludington sub, 127 miles of track going north from Grand Rapids to Ludington and Manistee.
Marquette, a partnership of Progressive Rail Corp., Lake States Railway, Farm Rail Systems and TranSolutions, Inc., will own the tracks, but lease the land from CSX.
In a separate arrangement with CSX, Michigan Shore Railroad is expected to lease both land and tracks on the Fremont sub — 48 miles stretching from West Olive to Fremont.
Steve Kauffman, chairman of United Transportation Union Local 1765, sent a letter to CSX employees letting them know about the proposed sale.
He said CSX employees won’t lose jobs, but will have to “follow the work.”
Employees might be able to find CSX jobs as close as Grand Rapids, or they could have to move out of state, to areas such as Cincinnati or East St. Louis, Ill.
“Our jobs are being outsourced,” Kauffman said. “They may not be outsourced overseas, but they’re at least being outsourced to another company.”
Kauffman has been a conductor and yard foreman with CSX in Ludington for 40 years.
He said employees are not bitter about the change, just disappointed they will have to uproot.
“They know that there’s going to be a job somewhere for them on the CSX,” he said. “It’s just going to be somewhat of an inconvenience for them to move.”
Michigan Shore Railroad bid on the Ludington sub and another line on the east side of the state, in addition to the Fremont sub.
Mike Bobic is manager of marketing and sales for Rail-America, the Boca Raton, Fla.-based company that owns Michigan Shore. He says the company has been told unofficially it will get the Fremont sub.
“That was probably the least desirable of the three we were bidding on, because we handle a good percentage of the traffic on that line anyway,” Bobic said.
CSX is shedding the lines as part of a larger program to redistribute its resources, said Kim Skorniak, a spokeswoman for the rail carrier. CSX employs 1,149 in Michigan and ships 186,000 carloads on state tracks every year.