Whistle pop: C&O will compete ‘fiercely’
(The following story by Hawes Spencer appeared on The Hook website on June 17.)
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The mom and pop business that wants to take over the historic mainline of the C&O railroad will pay $140,000 a year for the privilege-- plus pay all the real estate taxes, repair the tracks, and compete “fiercely” with trucks.
The specifics emerged recently in an agreement filed May 26 with the federal government’s Surface Transportation Board. According to the lease from CSX Transportation to the Buckingham Branch Railroad, the move could displace 32 CSX employees. The smaller railroad intends to hire 21 employees.
As detailed in the Hook’s May 13 cover story, union rules typically protect jobs, but not locations. Displaced employees-- of which Charlottesville has six-- could end up in another state. Buckingham Branch, however, claims in the filings that it intends to hire local workers in time for the December 20 changeover.
CSX has long contended that it loses money on the old C&O. The Jacksonville, Florida-based company operates about 23,000 miles of railroad-- and fewer every year. Like the three other major American railroads, the company constantly abandons tracks, even though America’s total railroad freight has been expanding for at least a decade, thanks to growth of “inter-modal” traffic-- containers that can move from rails to trucks and to ships.
The Buckingham Branch is a family business based in Dillwyn. It plans to run four daily freight trains at various points across the nearly 200-mile span that runs from Clifton Forge in the Shenandoah Valley to Doswell, just north of Richmond.
This isn’t the first time Robert and Annie Bryant have taken over a piece of the CSX. They acquired the Buckingham Branch in 1989. Serving pulp mills, stone quarries, and other industries along its 17-miles of low-speed track, the Buckingham Branch increased its annual traffic, according to the