Pan Am Railways and Norfolk Southern Create the Patriot Corridor to
Improve Rail Service and Expand Capacity in New York and New England
NORTH BILLERICA, MASS., NORFOLK, VA. – Pan Am Railways (PAR) and
Norfolk Southern Railway Company (NS) have agreed to create an improved rail
route between Albany, N.Y., and the greater Boston, Mass., area called
the “Patriot Corridor.” Investments in the Patriot Corridor are
expected to improve track quality and customer service, boost train speed and
reliability, and increase capacity on the route. PAR and NS each will
have a 50 percent interest in the newly formed railroad company, called
“Pan Am Southern.”
PAR has agreed to transfer to the joint venture its 155-mile main line
track that runs between Mechanicville (Albany), N.Y., and Ayer, Mass.,
along with 281 miles of secondary and branch lines, including trackage
rights, in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, and
Vermont. NS has agreed to transfer cash and other property valued at $140
million to the joint venture, $87.5 million of which is expected to be
invested within a three-year period in capital improvements on the
Patriot Corridor, such as terminal expansions, track and signal upgrades.
The companies also anticipate the construction of new intermodal and
automotive terminals in the Albany area. PAR’s Springfield Terminal
Railway subsidiary has agreed to provide all railroad services for the
joint venture.
“We are excited to partner with Norfolk Southern on the Patriot
Corridor. Since the Conrail transaction was implemented in 1999, both Pan Am
Railways and Norfolk Southern have been working to bring additional high
quality rail transportation options to our New England customer base.
This joint venture is the culmination of those efforts,” said David
Fink, Pan Am Railways’
Wow! That’s a really groundbreaking move! Makes me want to go railfanning at Ayer again, last time there wasn’t much Pan Am action. Keep us posted![tup]
I’ll do my best, but the kind of press release Norfolk Southern used above is more to satisfy shareholders and analysts. The way to find out if the Patriot Line is working well is to see a photo from it on the 2008 Annual Report, but that’s almos a year away.
Since we are a type of fansite, perhaps there are people who reading this who could link you to something that could keep you better informed.
It’s also possible that you could go to nscorp dot com, url for Norfolk Southern, and be put on some of a general e-mail release list.
Please PM me if you could use another possibility or two.
Timothy Mellon (of the Mellon banking family) owns Guilford/Pan Am. The PAR shenanigans refers to the railroad’s poor service record and their tendancy to hijac…er, “borrow” NS locos that roam onto the system (NS trains haul coal drags to the power plant in Bow, NH and run on PAR trackage to do so). I guess their relationship isn’t as bad as Blue Streak says, since NS is leasing some GP38-2s to PAR and Guilford has bought a lot of secondhand power from them in the past.
I’ve railfanned Guilford since I was a kid, and I still do (it’s a like/hate relationship), so between this and the Pan Am repaints, this is definetly a good time to be a PAR railfan! Hopefully some of NS’s corportare culture will rub off on PAR; and not vice-versa…
I guess it’s a good deal, except PAR only goes as far west as Schenectady and NS as far east as Binghamton. They need CP to fill the gap. NS has rights over CP, but no ownership.
I wonder what drove the deal, though. Boston is a good destination, but…
Railroads marry for practical reasons, not for love.
Perhaps NS realized that its engines vis-a-vis Guilford’s were more up-to-date and mighty tempting for the PAR to “borrow,” as was alleged above? Or that if they owned the route, they could save a bundle on haulage?
I don’t think NS rushed into this just to be cute. It is interesting, though, that the proposed merger seems to have been kept under wraps so long. People were hinting about the CN buying the EJ&E shorty before the official announcement was made way back last fall.
They didn’t rush into this. First of all NS and Guilford Pan Am have had a relationship for many years dating back to the 1985(ish) bidding for Conrail by NS. NS wanted Guilford to get to St. Louis to maintain “competition” in the area. Anyways, NS and Guilford have setup GMX, aka the intermodal terminal at Ayer. NS sent a geometry train over PAR last year and created a simulator of districts 3 and 4. This has been in the works for a while behind closed doors. This is a huge win for New England and the best news shippers have heard since the reign of Guilford started almost 25 years ago…
Actually I didn’t think NS rushed into it either. I chose the wrong verb and/or wrong location for it that didn’t convey my facetious intention for the whole sentence. Too carried away with the marriage metaphor, I guess.
Anyway, CaptainChuck, I appreciate the add’l information and history. Thank you! - al
[%-)] Please explain how this is union busting? I know that Guilford leasing B&M and MEC operations to ST in the 80’s was union busting, however ST crews are the ones who operate the Bow, NH coal trains anyways once the train reaches PAR trackage. And ST crews are the ones who operate the trains on the Patriot Corridor trackage before the Corridor is created (this isn’t a done deal, yet). NS never has trackage or running rights on PAR trackage. If anything, this sounds like NS and PAR are keeping the labor stuation status quo for the time being.