WASHINGTON, D.C. — CSX and Norfolk Southern plan to break apart the intermodal facility in the Detroit Shared Assets Area so the two can better handle increased traffic. The $10 million public-private project is unique in that it attempts to separate the only facility the two railroads were forced to share as a result of the Conrail split in 1998, the Journal of Commerce reported.
The break-up would be a precursor to a larger project pushed by automotive shippers and the Michigan Department of Transportation to combine the intermodal facilities of all the Class 1 railroads operating in southeast Michigan into a single mega-terminal area.
Driving the split is a surge of automotive intermodal business generated by the Big Three U.S. automobile manufacturers for Pacer Stacktrain, the underlying intermodal carrier, and CSX Intermodal, as Pacer’s Eastern U.S. partner. “The thing that made this possible was Pacer sitting down with its automotive customers and listening to their requirements of wanting a more efficient service from the upper Midwest and Canada to Mexico,” said Pete Baumhefner, vice president, operations, Pacer Stacktrain. “We’re looking forward to any improvements that come down the line in the next year or two.”
The split and expansion in Detroit again has raised the issue of the role of “little Conrail” as a switching carrier in the shared asset areas, and whether or not it’s the most efficient means of handling traffic in those areas. In comments recently submitted to the Surface Transportation Board, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and the American Chemical Association both expressed concern about rumors that NS and CSX were considering doing away with Conrail as a switching carrier and instead incorporating those activities back into the respective railroads.
“A huge part of the merger was sold to everyone – shippers, the government, the public – on two-carrier competition in” the shared asset areas, said one shipper. “If Conrail goes away and it’s decided that each railroad gets certain facilities with no contingency for reciprocal switching, then that competition goes away and we’re back to single-carrier access again. Removing Conrail as a switching carrier would have to be done in a way that maintains competition.”