Does anyone think NS will partner up with or buy up Ohio Central’s route from Mingo Junction to Columbus, OH for faster service, kind of like the Patriot Corridor Project? I know NS already has trackage rights but I figured why don’t they upgrade the route for faster train service.
I mean if you look at highway traffic density maps, it would make sense. It could make NS a more viable option for shippers if they had a more direct route to the Ohio Capital.
Those NS trains are still operated by the Ohio Central crews.
We get those trains here in Portsmouth,Ohio and they to my knowledge are handed off to our PW (Ports-Col) short pool crews,and when PW crews aren’t available, the I.D. crews handle them.
The air brake slips I have seen are Ohio Central also.
I don’t think the NS is wanting to buy anymore tracks in Ohio right now.The Heartland Corridor project has already determined the path of new business.We are suppose to pick-up new intermodals and time freight,some of which has already occurred .
We are really running alot of the rerouted coal trains off the WV Secondary thru Portsmouth lately.[2c]
Ohio Central is owned by GWI
I know Genesee & Wyoming owns OC, but still won’t OC have the final decision in the matter.
I am just thinking what would NS’s next project would be, this could be the next Patriot Corridor project. I mean the Patriot Corridor is finished, the Heartland Corridor is nearing completion, and Mid-America Corridor is starting this year.
Isn’t the route, once the PRR Panhandle route from Columbus to Pittsburgh, severed short of Pittsburgh? What’s the gain for NS, just to run a few coal trains? Conrail really annihilated a big share of the routes they inherited that ran via Columbus. Wonder who at NS has often wished Conrail hadn’t destroyed the PRR from Columbus to Chicago via Logansport?
I am just saying if they wanted to, it looks more like pulling traffic off interstates may be promising, if they decided to buy it up the OC route. And lets face it, how much trackage did Conrail abandon out of “panic”? If NS cut time down between Pittsburgh and Columbus, the may pull in some more business.
