(The following story by Matt Spina and Matt Glynn appeared on the Buffalo News website on April 17, 2009.)
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Sen. Charles E. Schumer talked by telephone to the head of CSX Transportation on Thursday and said he came away with the “distinct impression” that the Buffalo rail yard will remain open.
During a visit to Buffalo, Schumer said that Michael Ward, the CSX chairman and chief executive officer, explained that a review of the Buffalo yard is part of a systemwide cost-cutting effort.
Schumer said Ward left him believing that closing the Buffalo rail yard is not on the table. And Schumer said he told Ward he would communicate that to Western New York.
“I had a very good conversation with him and stressed the importance of CSX to Western New York, and he is well aware that we are one of their most important states,” Schumer said.
Schumer said he then explained that closing the Buffalo yard would make it far more cumbersome for CSX to move Canadian freight through New York.
“He was aware of that,” Schumer said.
Then, without being specific, Schumer said he got “the very strong impression” that CSX does not intend to close the Frontier Yard.
“They have lost a lot of revenues, and they are looking at all of their institutions,” Schumer said. “And I think they are considering cutting back somewhere. And I made a strong argument [to protect] Buffalo.”
A union official said Wednesday that CSX, in the face of declining revenues, was reviewing the Frontier Yard for possible reductions or, in a worst-case scenario, closing it.
Schumer and Rep. Brian Higgins, D-Buffalo, sent a letter to Ward urging CSX to keep the Frontier Yard operating. “The loss of those jobs in the current economy would be devastating to the families of those employees and would place further stress on the already humbled regional economy,” they wrote.
Closing the yard would also eliminate an infrastructure asset important to Buffalo’s ability to compete for future economic development, they wrote.
Higgins in an interview said he understands CSX is facing economic pressures. “We want to ask them to be patient and to allow the recovery to begin to take place,” Higgins said.
Among the factors Higgins cited was Buffalo’s proximity to the growing region of Southern Ontario. “That’s very, very significant,” he said. “Our economy is interconnected, obviously, with Southern Ontario.” CSX’s Buffalo operation handles cross-border rail traffic.
Higgins said the Frontier Yard plays an important role in the local economy through its jobs and employees’ spending. “They have disposable income that will create demand in our economy,” he said.
Dave Kellner, president of Local 2020 of the Transport Workers Union, which represents a portion of the local CSX work force, said the railroad has not announced a timetable for its decision. He said he was told by a CSX official that the Frontier Yard was one of a handful of yards under review by the railroad.
Kellner estimated more than 100 area CSX employees are already on layoff due to slowdowns in the industries it serves.
Jim Louis, an official with the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, said there are fears that CSX could cut back its local work force by as much as half of its 800 people.
“We’re just trying to get some kind of direction about where CSX is going to go,” Louis said.
Louis said he was concerned that CSX abruptly halted work on a long-awaited upgrade at the Frontier Yard five months after it started and pulled out the construction equipment.
The improvements were supposed to be made to the “hump processing systems” in Buffalo, Selkirk, which is near Albany, and Indianapolis as a result of the breakup of Conrail in the late 1990s. Buffalo is the only one of three yet to be upgraded, Louis said.
CSX in a statement on Wednesday said it was not ruling out any option for the future of the Frontier Yard, citing double digit decreases in its volumes. It said no decision had been made regarding the Frontier Yard’s future.