As we all know this route is currently up for sale, I heard from the CSX office in Jax that next week they will have potential buyers HighRailing through to check out the line. My question is who would be the most likely to buy this route?
IMO GrupoMexico could make the purchase and combine it with FEC thus creating a new Class I railroad. FEC has been flying under the radar when it comes to class II turning into a class I. Its been said they dont want all the extra hassell that comes along with a Class I. They are pretty much there though. GrupoMexico has been looking to invest heavy in America, esspecially since the new tax cuts. I think they would love to say they now own a Class I. Plus it gets them closer to the border. Thoughts anyone?
Does this line connect with the Atlanta and St. Andrews Bay? If it does and they have the interest and ability to acquire it, it might be worth their while
Incidentally, I expect that the line is for sale from Baldwin west; not from Jacksonville west, since the S line goes west from Jacksonville to Baldwin before going south.
The Bay Line ( ASAB ) might not be wanted by FEC. Since it goes to Dothan, Al that would make it an interstate RR that might not be in FEC’s interest. Now the Apalachiola Northern RR( AN ) that conects with the CSX line at Chattahoochee could be an intrastate acquisition.
Baldwin with trackage rights to Jacksonville going to Pensacola also seems a good fit. Be quite an intrastate RR.
I looked up the subdivisions mentioned, and they do run from Baldwin to Pensacola. That is about 300 miles of RR. I don’t know of any significant online sources of traffic, or any potential sources. This line allows New Orleans-to-Florida or Waycross traffic to take a straight shot across the Panhandle instead of traveling much further up to Montgomery, over to Manchester and back down, so I’m surprised CSX would consider selling it.
If they can still get from here to there, and move the maintenance of the line to the bottom line, so much the better for the investors looking to squeeze every last dime out of the railroad.
The recent model for CSX freight line divesture has been the leasing model. The Buckingham Branch is such a operation. CSX still owns the trackage the BB operates the BB does the maintenance, operation and dispatching of the line as well as the revenue for the traffic they handle (which includes numerous CSX empty hopper trains returning to the mines from Newport News). I don’t know what kind of payment that CSX pays for the hopper trains. BB does all the ‘local’ work along the line and participates in the line haul revenue for this traffic.
Tri-Rail and SunRail sales to the State of Florida for their commuter passenger operations have been the exceptions to this model, CSX still retains trackage and freight rights to these lines.
BaltACD mentioned in one of his posts that ‘leasing’ a particular segment was apparently, the current model CSX was using to justify moving a lne segment ‘off its books’ (?).
That area across the panhandle of Florida and into Jacksonville area, is in many places crossed by many varying sized waterways; it would also seem to be prime for problems with ‘soft ground structure’(?), (sand and marshey ground).
It would seem to point to an area with such problems as to cause very, high maintenance issues(?). Therefore, prime to dump those maintenance problems ‘off their books’ to another ‘leasor line’. Such a situation might be the reason for inclusion on the list of line segment for CSX to shed?
Suspect at least some of the reason is potential hurricane remediation. Sections were utterly obliterated in Katrina (part of why Amtrak truncated the Sunset) and the apparent likelihood of more and stronger storms would make the risk analysis skew very heavily toward offloading it even if ‘regular’ maintenance is adequately covered by revenue.
If FEC goes after it they would have a decent choke hold on the whole state of Florida. A few more stratigic purchases, and they could really control the price
CSX leasing a line to anyone does NOT get the line off CSX’s books. They own it and it is part of their asset base. A key measure of profitability is return on assets. Only a sale removes a line from CSX’s asset base.
Accepting the premise that this line is succeptible to hurricane damage, if CSX leases it, I think they would have a hard time avoiding being stuck with the cost of repairs if the shortline could not get government money for repairs. If I were CSX and was worried about this issue, I would sell the line and let the chips fall where they may in the event.
The portion of CSX that was destroyed by Katrina was from Mobile to New Orleans, not Pensacola to Jacksonville. The portion of the New Orleans - Jacksonville route from Flomaton, AL to Jacksonville received only minor damages.
It would not surprise me if freights on the west side of the iron triangle would leave cuts of cars for New Orleans traffic. That is in line with the EHH objective of running the core triangle as PSR with secondary lines off the triangle.
Two routes from Jacksonvile to New Orleans off the main triangle probably would not fit that model.
This would seem to be similar to the St. Louis-Cincinnati ex-B&O being on the chopping block. Traffic will take the line to Indy along with everythiing heading that way and blocks would go down to Louisville and Cincinnati. It is a longer route but they roll it all on larger trains and swap blocks.
That is just an uneducated bit of surmising from recalling things mentioned in past articles in various publications about the EHH plans for CSX.
That is not that different from the way CN serves, for example, Minneapolis and Calgary and Mobile with a “heavy-use” branch off the main trunk line.
I was referring to taking NOLA traffic from Jacksonville “up and over” through Waycross versus going straight across through the panhandle. Sorry for any confusion.
If they spin off the former Sunset route across Florida, that would be their only other option, I am thinking from looking at their system map.
How does most traffic between Jacksonville and New Orleans go now? Across the Panhandle, or through Montgomery (which route is a little over 100 miles longer)?
Traffic out of Waycross doesn’t go to the Panhandle - it moves on the Bow Line through Valdosta and on to Montgomery, AL - all Panhandle and New Orleans traffic moves via Jacksonville to New Orleans. Operationally the Bow Line has been a ‘overflow route’ for traffic between Birmingham and Waycross that noramally moves over the Lineville and Fitzgerald Subs.
The CSX System map is not indicitive of traffic patterns.
Either way CSX is selling for some reason, and I hope it ends up in FECs hands. They have a great railroad down there with great track conditions and are making great headlines with this whole Brightline thing. I think if they end up getting it, they would clean it up and hopefully bring back Amtrak on it. Like I said before, it gets them closer to Mexico