(The Associated Press circulated the following article on March 22.)
GRAFTON, WVa. — A Kansas-based transportation holding company will begin operating 117 miles of leased CSX Transportation track between Grafton and Cowen, plus five short branch lines, on Friday.
The Appalachian & Ohio Railroad is the newest short line for Watco Companies Inc., based in Pittsburg, Kan.
CSX has abandoned, sold or leased more than 13,000 miles of redundant rail routes since 1982 to concentrate on its most profitable routes.
“Property values have exceeded business values,” CSX spokeswoman Jane Covington said. “It pays in certain cases to hold onto property, but not operate it.”
Covington noted that short-line buyers and lessees “are carefully chosen.”
“It’s a long-term relationship, and we want them to succeed,” she said.
CSX has said the change will affect 90 of its workers. The railroad gave its trainmen and engineers in Grafton, Buckhannon, Burnsville and Cowen until Monday to apply for permanent transfers to terminals in a district stretching from Philadelphia and Richmond, Va., to Willard, Ohio, and Parkersburg.
The fate of railroaders has concerned some labor union officials.
“It’s disheartening to see employees who have been with CSXT for 20 or more years who are over the age of 50 have to pick up and relocate at this stage of their life,” said John Bentley, a spokesman for the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen in Cleveland.
About 82 percent of the Grafton-Cowen route’s traffic is coal, CSX said.