(The following story by David Brock appeared on the Advocate-Messenger website on July 23, 2010.)
DANVILLE, Ky. — Norfolk Southern will move its rail crew change point next year from Danville to the Burnside area south of Somerset.
Company spokesman Robin Chapman confirmed a report in Thursday’s Commonwealth Journal newspaper in Somerset that the move, which was first proposed in January, will happen at the beginning of next year.
Chapman said some new tracks and crew quarters, which he described as being like a hotel, should be complete in November.
Chapman said the move will immediately affect 80-90 employees. According to the most recent employment numbers reported to the Danville-Boyle County Economic Development Partnership, Norfolk Southern currently employs 183 people locally.
Danville has long been one of main stations for trains to change crews between Norfolk Southern’s terminals in Cincinnati and Louisville and Knoxville and Chattanooga.
Jody Lassiter, president of the EDP, said he reached out to Norfolk Southern, including an April 15 e-mail requesting a meeting between company officials, Lassiter, Boyle County Judge-Executive Harold McKinney and Danville Mayor Hugh Coomer.
Lassiter said there was never any response and the continued lack of communication indicated that there would be no opportunity to make the case for retaining the crew change point in Danville.
Lassiter said it is unclear what the total impact on jobs will be locally because Norfolk Southern has not confirmed how many of the positions being transferred will no longer be subject to city and county payroll taxes.
No one from the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, the union that represents local workers, could be reached for comment.