CSX reached a milestone on the former Pan Am Railways on Monday, Dec. 4, when it ran the first train in nearly five years between Old Town, Maine, and the New Brunswick Southern interchange at Mattawamkeag, Maine.
The 45-mile stretch of the former Maine Central was out of service and previously had speeds restricted to 10 mph. CSX has upgraded the line to Federal Railroad Administration Class II standards, permitting 25-mph operation, and 15 miles of the line is now up to FRA Class III track standards that permit 40-mph running. CSX also has upgraded trackage between Waterville and Old Town, which had been limited to 10 mph operation.
“With increased speeds and improved track, CSX will now be able to interchange with New Brunswick Southern Railway at Mattawamkeag, which will save approximately two to three days in transit time between Mattawamkeag and New Brunswick, Canada,” CSX said in a Dec. 1 update to the Surface Transportation Board.
The interchange traffic previously moved under a haulage agreement with Canadian Pacific Kansas City’s former Central Maine & Quebec via Northern Maine Junction.
A pair of former Pan Am C40-8s, which were originally CSX units, delivered 47 cars to the New Brunswick Southern interchange on Monday evening. The New Brunswick Southern has a haulage agreement with sister J.D. Irving short line Eastern Maine Railway, which operates the former Canadian Pacific trackage from the New Brunswick border to Mattawamkeag and on to Brownville Junction, the interchange with CPKC.
CSX, which acquired Pan Am Railways in 2022, also told the STB that by the end of the year it will complete projects at the Pan Am Southern yard in Ayer, Mass., that “will allow for increased fluidity and capacity for the critical link between the CSX system and the PAR System, in addition to improving the PAS System. CSX anticipates that the increased reliability resulting from these projects will continue to encourage new customers to ship via rail rather than truck.”
Pan Am Southern, which includes the former Boston & Maine main line between Ayer and Mechanicville, N.Y., is a joint venture with Norfolk Southern. Genesee & Wyoming’s Berkshire & Eastern is the operator of the Pan Am Southern.
Traffic on the Ayer-Mechanicville Patriot Corridor remains steady, CSX told the board.
Have to wonder how much traffic was lost to the Downeast area because Pan Am let service and facilities degrade. Question is will CSX turn it around?
I would wonder too although most of the traffic lost would be most likely due to the loss of most of the paper mills in Maine. Pan Am was quite good at attracting new business and I would doubt the CSX will bother to market its service to the smaller businesses that are about the only business left in Maine. We’ll have to wait and see.
One could expect a drop in manifest traffic on CP between Brownville Jct and Montreal and down the D&H Canadian main line. How much remains to be seen.
I hope CSX misspoke in its 12/1/23 report to the STB when it said “With increased speeds and improved track, CSX will now be able to interchange with New Brunswick Southern Railway at Mattawamkeag, which will save approximately two to three days in transit time between Mattawamkeag and New Brunswick, Canada,” CSX said in a Dec. 1 update to the Surface Transportation Board.”
As Saint John, NB is only 150 miles from Mattawamkeag, saving 2 to 3 days transit time is non-sensical especially since CSX rehab work had nothing to do with this stretch of Irving’s already well maintained Eastern Maine RR. I’m guessing CSX meant to say that 2 to 3 days transit time were saved between N Maine Jct and New Brunswick.
I think you got that right, John.
Just the fact CSX has upgraded this route is good news. Very forward looking and maybe clearance projects in the future.
Doublestacks from and to Port St John won’t be far behind these improvements.
Quite the opposite, given multiple clearance issues yet to be resolved between Worcester and Portland.