If this pans out, and I’m guessing it will, this will gloriously end the sad Timothy Mellon era of the former Maine Central and B&M.
Now, I guess I don’t know if those lines will “be” CSX; maybe The Pan Am name will remain, only CSX will run it. But I hope it gets fully integrated, and I can see blue and yellow engines up here. Pan Am has been mostly a pretty scuzzie operation. And although better in recent years, for a long time their public image was way beyond bad.
This is somewhat of a puzzle to me. This would effectively add a second, parallel line from upstate NY to the Boston area through Hoosac Tunnel. Doesn’t NS have trackage rights over that line? I wonder if they would issue a protest to the STB about this.
Personally, I’m against this. Sounds like just another move to add what would effectively become a “redundent” route then “rationalize”.
Regards,
Fred M. Cain
One plausible scenario is that Pan Am Southern will go to Norfolk Southern.
One potential factor is Port St John in New Brunswick. Pan Am interchanges with the Easten Maine Railway-New Brunswick Southern Railway system at Mattawamkeag. Port St John is undergoing a $200+ million expansion that will allow it to berth 360 meter container ships in the 8,500-10,000 TEU size. The port throughput will go from about 75,000 TEU annually to about 330,000 TEU annually. That is about 900 containers per day in and out on average, which would be 4.5 trains per day of 100 wells each if they all go be rail.
With the shift of manufacturing out of China to South Asia, more trade will be coming via the Suez Canal and Mediterranean Sea. Port St John is the second closest port to the Strait of Gibraltar after Halifax.
It would take some clearance improvements and upgrading some line to 286,000-lbs from Bangor to Mattawamkeag, but there is the future potential for container service from Port St John to the Northeast and Midwest. It would be CSX’s longest container route.
CP also accesses Port St John via the Eastern Maine Railway-New Brunswick Southern at Brownville Junction.
The port expansion is one reason - not the only reason, but one reason - that they purchased Central Maine & Quebec.
Time will tell but it will be interesting to watch.
Honestly, I’ve always been puzzled why they called it “Pan Am.” If you’re in a certain age bracket when you hear “Pan Am” the first thing you think of isn’t railroading.
And if you’re in a really special age bracket you might even think of this: https://flyingcloudschinaclippers.blogspot.com/2016/08/china-clipper-calling-alameda-china.html
They might have been more popular if they said “Let’s call it the Boston & Maine! Why the hell not?” Proud people, those New Englanders, they’d have loved it.
I think at the time it became Pan Am, the thought was just name it anything but Guilford.
It’s worth remembering that Guilford/Pan Am fought tooth & nail to keep Amtrak’s Downeaster from using their tracks. For long years readers of railroad news in Trains and elsewhere marvelled at the stubbornness and opposition of this company and their complete disregard of good public relations.
I’m not privy to the actual numbers, but I’ll venture that of the total cost to rehabilitate this line for passenger service, very little came from the company that owned it and afterwards could profit from it itself. At the least, it’s a very uncreative company.
I’ll also note that having the Downeaster serve Maine has been a success that’s benefitted many people and helped boost the state’s economy.
The Pan Am trade name and logo were available, I guess from whatever paper entity of the airline still existed. Guilford bought that identity. I’m pretty sure that Balt is correct; the name “Guilford” had become, a least here in Maine, pretty much the same as “$#!t.” So they bought his respected name. I thought was quite silly at the time, but I guess it did help them change their image somewhat.
I also immediately wondered about the northern (Hoosac Tunnel) line, which seems in some ways to now become uselessly redundant. I cannot remember from the last time (many years ago) I followed those tracks, how much online business there is; I don’t think there’s a lot.
Every word you said is true.
I should mention, though, that relations with the Downeaster eventually improved. I did a lot of work for the Downeaster, and at one point, when the extension to Freeport was christened, I found myself riding in the Pan Am executive car, on the end of the Amtrak train. David Fink Jr. was there, as was Patricia Quinn, the head of NNEPRA, who manages the Downeaster); those two seemed to get along very well, and I was told by her that they did. His father (then retired) was the grinch who stole Christmas.
I’m thinking CSX will “demarket” most of the small and mid-sized customers and “rationalize” most lines leaving only a couple higher-volume lanes. Like CN did with the Wisconsin Central aquisition.
To me the big questions are whether they’ll retain much of the B&M east-west main; and how much of what all they acquire will be bought by shortlines, and how much will be abandoned.
Since CSX already has the Boston & Albany, I wouldn’t be too surprised if the STB orders that the other 50% interest in the B&M east-west main be sold to NS.
There is a Trains Blog topic on this, and in it a clearance map was referenced. It shows that most of the line thru NH and Maine is plate F, 17’ clearance.
[quote user=**“Lithonia Operator”]
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https://www.railwayage.com/regulatory/definitive-csx-acquiring-pan-am-railways/
[/quote]
Note: From the linked site, provided by Lithonia Operator: FTL: "…Railway Age reported that NS has a $140 million joint venture with Pan Am called PAS, which gives the former access to New England via trackage rights on the former Boston & Maine Mechanicville, N.Y.-Ayer, Mass., main line. In its STB filing, NS noted that “one of the main benefits of … joint control and ownership of PAS was to strengthen competition with CSX Transportation. Any CSXT effort to acquire Pan Am would threaten to materially undermine this existing competition, thus impacting not only NS, but also rail shippers and other railroads. NS is concerned with CSXT’s potential acquisition of Pan Am, specifically its interest in PAS, and is further concerned with CSXT’s potential use of a voting trust to acquire Pan Am,” which NS said would create “competitive harm…”
From the outside looking in; My guess, would be that the lion’s share of the aforementoned $140 M was from the NS; and PAS was the beneficiary(?) for the partial 'buy-in" of NS on the PAS line?
CSXT picks up Pan Am, and The PAS for ‘a song’ (?) and leaves NS Corporately. with ‘bupkus’… [oX)]
The end play for CSXT is they are eventually able to acce
First, in the agreement that NS signed with Pan Am to create PAS, didn’t they have any language to protect themselves in the event of these commonplace mergers?
Second, didn’t NS have the chance to bid on Pan Am, or otherwise influence the outcome? Why are they complaining now when they passed up the opportunity?
Because that’s what you do.
EDIT: By that I meant “one does.” Not Midland Mike does!
In looking via Google Msps at potential doublestack routes west from Port Saint John through Massachusetts, it appears that the one logical route may be Pan Am to East Deerfield then down to Springfield to jump on the Boston & Albany.
At the risk of sounding overly simplistic, it looks like clearances could be increased for doublestacks by lowering the track beneath highway overpasses. Here is a PAR clearance map.
There might be some upgrading to 286K needed on some stretches of track. While living in southern WI for a period of time, I was able to “watch from close up” as WIsconsin & Southern did that. It consisted mainly of strengthening bridges and then, where there was very old light rail, replacing it with 115 lb welded rail.
Here is a PAR weight map.
All in all, it seems plausible that CSX may be able to run doublestacks from Port Saint John to the midwest in the future. It is about 1,000 miles to Cleveland and 1,300 miles to Chicago, making it CSX’s longest intermodal lane. If it happens.
Port Saint John is expanding with a $200+ million expansion to berth two container ships simultaneously of up to 360 meters each, which depending on the beam of the ship puts them in the 8,500-10,000 TEU range.
https://www.craneandhoistcanada.com/port-of-saint-john-expansion-underway-1348/
So the success of Wisconsin and Southern was tied directly to Randy Gardner whom before he was convicted was a successful highway contractor and lobbyist prior to his involvement with WSOR. He knew how to grease the skids as they say to get state funding for highway projects. He used the same techniques with Wisconsin and Southern and eventually got caught because he made the mistake of telling his girlfriend who ran off to the authorities and snitched after some argument they had. Broke the first rule of Highway Contractors, never tell someone outside the family about the family business.
He knew how to schmooze state officials by putting them on special passenger trains with himself narrating the route, wining and dining them, etc. I was impressed watching from afar because that is very similar to what large IT consulting companies due when they persue an IT contract from a company. Take the client on the tour of their software labs, courtesy a flight in the business jet, some nice hotel time and dinners with booze. So if you ever wonder why highways always get the money and rails are starved. Pretty sure it is the highway lobby.
I have to admit I don’t know the back story in depth on Wisconsin & Southern that you refer to. What they physically they did to get to 286K on the roadbed is what I was referencing.
WAMX is the operator of all those State-owned lines now so hopefully the communities that still have their rail service are glad to have it.
I do think CSX has the financial horsepower to do their own upgrading for clearances and 286K on PAR if they decide that is the way to go.
I don’t know if CSXT has any interest in the Port of Saint John, NB but CP definately does. CP has a contract to haul Hapag-Lloyd containers from the Port of Montreal to the US Midwest and Western Canada, this business originates in Europe. Hapag-Lloyd is having problems due to strikes at Montreal. CP and Hapag-Lloyd have announced a new service for the same markets operating via the Port of Saint John, NB