(The following story by Chip Jones appeared on the Richmond Times-Dispatch website on June 8.)
RICHMOND, Va. — In a railroad deal of David-and-Goliath proportions, tiny Buckingham Branch Railroad will pay CSX Corp. $140,000 a year to lease nearly 200 miles of railroad track across Virginia.
The Dillwyn-based freight railroad said it is ready to run four trains per day, five days a week for CSX customers from Richmond to Clifton Forge.
It “plans to compete fiercely with trucks for traffic originating on the line,” Buckingham Branch said in an application filed May 26 with the federal Surface Transportation Board.
The Buckingham County rail company said it hopes to increase rail service without raising shipping rates. CSX has said it is not making a profit by serving about a dozen industries, rock quarries and publishers – including the Richmond Times-Dispatch’s production plant in Hanover County.
Privately, customers have said they sometimes get spotty rail service from CSX, the nation’s third-largest railroad.
The Surface Transportation Board, which oversees economic aspects of the U.S. rail system, must approve the rental deal. Buck- ingham Branch is seeking a 20-year lease, with a review option after five years.
After two years, the application says, the short line would take over maintenance of all signals and dispatching along the line.
Currently, that is handled by CSX at its Jacksonville, Fla., dispatching center.
Buckingham Branch promised to “provide more frequent and responsive service to the local customers.”
It also pledged to hire people who live near the rail line “as an aid to improving customer service.” The short line said it hopes to generate more traffic and improve corporate “financial viability.”
Last year, Buckingham Branch had 14 employees and revenue of $1 million but did not make a profit, owner and founder Bob Bryant said in an earlier interview. The company serves small industries and quarries in the county.
The leasing of CSX track appears to be a way for Bryant to expand his operation outside Buckingham, a rural county in central Virginia.
But as a small operator trying to cut costs, the rail veteran has generated controversy because of potential job losses among rail union employees.
According to the federal filing, 32 workers – including engineers, trainmen and maintenance-of-way workers – might be displaced or relocated.
“We’re reasonably certain that no employee will lose their job due to this transaction,” CSX spokeswoman Misty Skipper said.
But one union official said CSX has not discussed the deal and that he expects some job losses by December.
“The railroad’s not talking to us about it,” said Roy Griffith, vice chairman of the Allied Eastern Federation of the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes. “It remains to be seen whether all these guys are protected” by labor contracts.
Buckingham Branch said it would consider hiring qualified CSX employees “because of their knowledge of the property and customers.”
The short line said it would hire about 21 workers, including train and engine service and maintenance work.
The company also plans to cross-train workers to perform different tasks, something that might not be possible under union rules.
Bryant, who founded the Buckingham Branch in 1989, declined to comment on the plan yesterday.
A former CSX marketing executive, Bryant retired in the 1980s and returned home to Buckingham County with his wife, Annie.
They invested much of their savings to start the short-line railroad on an unprofitable section owned by CSX.
Since then, the Bryants have received state rail-preservation grants and awards for upgrading their railroad.