VOORHEESVILLE, N.Y. — A federal judge has granted a preliminary injunction allowing Norfolk Southern to begin work on a new crew-change facility in the village of Voorheesville, which sought to block the project.
The Albany Times-Union reports U.S. District Court Judge Brenda K. Sannes of the Northern District of New York approved the preliminary injunction on Dec. 3.
Voorheesville had issued a stop-work order against the project in September, telling the railroad the project violated local zoning, as well as an agreement on stopping trains in town and state regulations on blocked crossings. That led NS to file suit in October on the grounds the village’s order was preempted by federal law [see “NS sues New York town …,” Trains.com, Oct. 16, 2025]. The new facility would support the railroad’s plan to shift intermodal trains to trackage rights over CSX.
The newspaper reports the village has countersued, arguing that trains stopping at the crew-change facility could block three intersections, cutting off half of Voorheesville from emergency responders for up to 30 minutes. The railroad responded that most trains would not be long enough to block traffic and those that did would do so for much less time. NS had previously said it chose the site as the only location where trains could stop without blocking grade crossings.
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I can’t comment on the length of the trains in question, but many if not most through trains now days are 10,000 feet or longer.
Wonder how CSX is going to handle these extra trains? I’m sure if it were a couple of more passenger trains there would be a demand for hundreds of millions of dollars in infrastructure improvements.
Why not have the crew change point be the Selkirk yard, the RR owns the property it is close by and it would not cause problems with the neighbors.
I am pretty sure Selkirk is owned by CSX. They may not allow NS to change crews there.
Did a quick measure on Google Maps and a 4500FT westbound train could block the two crossings downtown and the crossing at the crew change location. There is a bridge over another road in town, but with clearance around 11′, it may restrict emergency vehicles. A 4000FT train doesn’t seem that long to this Midwesterner, but maybe out east that is more common.
NS will say anything to get what it wants. I’m reasonably sure that 4000′ trains will be common.
NS’ new crew change facility construction is at Country Side Ln on the west side of School Rd Voorheesville. The distance west from the School Rd crossing to the next grade crossing at Hennessey Rd is ~ 7,200 ft that should accommodate most of the eb and wb IM trains. Crew changes for eb trains should be painless for the townspeople of Voorheesville. If NS can arrange a taxi/Uber/NS employee to facilitate crew changes for westbound trains at Hennessey Rd, there also should be no prolonged blocking of crossings.
John, I did notice that eastbound trains would have quite a bit more room, and suppose if they cabbed crews down to the Henessey, handling westbounds would not block the downtown crossings unless the train was over 11,000FT. I assumed since the city was making a stink that the plan was to stop the westbounds with the head end at School Rd instead of Henessey, but it appears that may not be the case.