Norfolk Southern next week will shift its Chicago-New England intermodal trains to a faster CSX trackage-rights route east of the Albany, N.Y., area thanks to the completion of bridge-clearance projects on CSX’s former Pan Am Railways main line between Worcester and Ayer, Mass.
NS trains 264 and 265 currently run single-stack to and from the Boston area via the Pan Am Southern former Boston & Maine route across northern Massachusetts that includes the 4.75-mile Hoosac Tunnel, which cannot accommodate domestic double-stack trains.
The new route will use CSX’s fully cleared Water Level Route and Boston & Albany main lines between Voorheesville, N.Y., and Worcester, then up the former Pan Am Railways line to the Ayer terminal on Pan Am Southern.
The first NS stack train to roll over the CSX trackage rights will be the train 264 that departs Chicago on Jan. 11, the railroad says. Upon departure from Binghamton, N.Y., on the former Delaware & Hudson, it will have a pair of Norfolk Southern heritage locomotives for power: D&H SD70ACe No. 1080 in the lead and Conrail ES44AC No. 8098 trailing.
The power will depart Ayer on Jan. 14 with the first NS westbound stack train 265.
The trains’ shift to the CSX route has been delayed several times due to the pace of clearance work on bridges north of Worcester. That work was wrapped up last week, allowing NS to begin operating one daily stack train in each direction of up to 9,000 feet in length.
This route over CSX trackage rights offers a transit time savings of roughly 10 hours compared to the Pan Am Southern former Boston & Maine route through Hoosac. About half of the savings comes from eliminating work the trains perform at the NS intermodal and auto terminal in Mechanicville, N.Y., which is at the western end of the Pan Am Southern Patriot Corridor.
The routes are practically a draw when it comes to mileage: It’s 286.42 miles from Binghamton, N.Y., to Ayer via the former D&H and CSX versus 298.75 miles from Binghamton to Ayer via the D&H and B&M. But the Pan Am Southern is a 25-mph railroad compared to the 50-mph maximum on CSX’s Water Level and B&A main lines.
NS and CSX agreed to the trackage rights deal as part of CSX’s acquisition of regional Pan Am Railways in 2022. CSX stepped into Pan Am Railways’ shoes in the Pan Am Southern, the joint venture that NS and PAR formed in 2009 to provide NS with access to New England. Genesee & Wyoming’s Berkshire & Eastern is the neutral operator of the Pan Am Southern.
Most of train 264 and 265’s runs east of Voorheesville, the junction of the D&H and Water Level Route, will be under the cover of darkness. The eastbound is due to depart Voorheesville around 2 a.m. and arrive at Ayer at 10 a.m.; the westbound is scheduled for a 1 a.m. departure from Ayer, with a 9 a.m. arrival at Voorheesville, which is 15 miles northwest of Albany.
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Here is the hope that the B&M Hoosac tunnel route is upgraded to at least 50 MPH with clearances thru the tunnel. IMO that will give 2 separate routes of 8 hours. That will be important in the far future giving 2 separate passenger routes for BOS ALB and commuter rail to / from BOS
Can I be the only person who sat up with a start – the article calls the Boston and Albany the “Water Level Route”, using the common term for other parts of the New York Central. Actually, the B&A a mountain railroad.
Note that the author of the article lives in Massachusetts.
My ears pop driving on I-90 Mass Pike. And I love the sign at the crest of the Berkshires on the Mass Pike (in or somewhere near Washington, Mass) saying it’s a higher elevation than any point on I-90 in South Dakota. I-90 in New York State (between the Mass state line and the Hudson River) is even steeper.
Charles, I too thought its not the water level route. And I live way out in western Canada, so I should not be very familiar with it.