CSX Transportation, responding to a report earlier this week from
trade publication trains.com, said Friday afternoon that a list of lines
under review for possible sale was "inaccurate." The list included the
former Boston & Albany line between Albany and Worcester, Mass., now
operated by CSX."I can definitively say that this line is not for sale," a CSX spokesman told the Times Union. The trains.com report had led to speculation about potential purchasers and the continued operation of Amtrak's Lake Shore Limited over the line.
CSX operates a major rail yard and auto distribution terminal in Selkirk. It had planned to close its hump yard there, used to sort individual rail cars into new trains, as it sought to reduce transit times, then Chief Operating Officer Cindy Sanborn told analysts at an investment conference last May.
Sanborn was replaced by James Foote as COO last autumn. Foote became CEO, succeeding E. Hunter Harrison, who was in the midst of rolling out his "precision scheduled railroading" concept at CSX, died in December.
Meanwhile, CSX reversed course and the Selkirk hump operation remains.
Last autumn, CSX planned to consolidate train dispatching operations in Jacksonville, Fla., where the railroad is headquartered. But that move apparently has been delayed.
Foote plans to continue Harrison's efforts, which include precision railroading where trains operate on set schedules. Foote told regulators at the beginning of January that assets are better utilized, transit times and customer service have improved, and costs have been reduced.
