This website has been archived from TrainWeb.org/eastpenn to TrainWeb.US/eastpenn.

 Also... NS 043, the detoured Conrail Office Car Train, is reported to have gotten held up in High Point, NC a tree on the tracks after a storm went through the area.  Can anything go right
today????-Galen A. Wright, Paul Wilson

OCS SCHEDULES (UPDATED 4/15/98 at 02:00 ET)

Conrail's OCS will be taking an East Coast whirlwind tour over the next two weeks.  The trip departed Altoona, PA last night for Philadelphia.  Departure from Philadelphia on Thursday April 16 will see the train operated to interchange with CSXT at Baltimore, then operate via CSXT to Miami, FL.  The train departs Miami, FL on April 18 and heads north to a Baltimore, MD interchange with Conrail. The train returns to Conrail on April 19 and is now returning to Altoona without making the previously scheduled trip to Selkirk, Buffalo, and Conway.  Click HERE to see the ENTIRE schedule.  - Kevin Burkholder

CSXT ANNOUNCES NEW COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM

John E. Giles, vice president-merchandise sales and marketing for CSX Transportation Inc. (CSXT), announced the creation of a new position in the Commercial Department that will focus on enhancing customer service and relationships by developing a superior sales and marketing work force.

Karen Folino, who had been director-regional sales for CSXT's southern region, has been named director-people development program. The position is effective immediately.

Folino will be responsible for the development and implementation of training and professional development requirements for sales and marketing, including employee evaluation, recruitment, hiring assessments and internships. She will work and coordinate with other CSXT human resource professionals to tailor a comprehensive and coordinated program for merchandise sales and marketing.

"Placing Karen in this key position will better enable us to live up to our commitment to people development in our commercial organization," Giles said. "We need to accelerate the development process to ensure that we have sufficient leadership in place to drive the organization to even higher levels of service to our customers. This promotion matches Karen's exceptional planning and development skills with our organizational needs, and it means that our sales and marketing professionals will continue to be among the most qualified and best trained in the industry."

Folino, who began her railroad career in sales and marketing at Burlington Northern before joining CSXT in 1995, is a graduate of Lee College. She also holds a Masters Degree in Business Administration from the University of Dallas, and a masters degree in Business Education from the University of Tennessee. -CSX Corporation

  CN, ILLINOIS CENTRAL, AND KCS FORGE ALLIANCE
Railways plan coordinated marketing and operations in fast-growing NAFTA transportation corridor

WASHINGTON, D.C., April 16, 1998 -Canadian National Railway Company (CN) , Illinois Central Corporation (IC) and Kansas City Southern Railway Company (KCSR) announced today a 15-year marketing alliance that will offer shippers new competitive options in a rail freight transportation network linking key north-south continental freight markets.

CN and KCSR have also signed a separate access agreement regarding certain haulage and trackage rights, which is contingent upon United States Surface Transportation Board approval of CN's previously announced merger with IC. The affected tracks are owned by IC and KCSR.

Neither CN nor KCSR will acquire equity interests or other financial holdings in the other.

CN-IC-KCSR plan to launch their marketing alliance immediately; it does not require approval by the STB.

The marketing alliance will offer shippers pro-competitive connections to new rail routes for their products and the ability to tap new markets through a coordinated rail network. Services will link points in Canada with the major U.S. Midwest markets of Detroit, Chicago, Kansas City and St. Louis, along with the key Southern markets of Memphis, Tenn., Dallas and Houston. In addition, this new marketing alliance will give shippers access to Mexico's largest rail system, Transportacion Ferroviaria Mexicana, S.A. de C.V. ("Grupo TFM").

Under terms of the marketing alliance, the companies will coordinate sales and marketing, operations, fleets, and information systems, but not for traffic movements where any two of them provide the only direct rail service.

The railways will target new markets in key north-south international and significant domestic U.S. traffic corridors. They will also seek to increase rail business in existing markets, primarily in automotive and intermodal, but also in key carload markets, including those for chemicals and forest products.

CN-IC-KCSR expect the marketing alliance to generate revenue and earnings growth and position them as the pre-eminent north-south rail carriers in the NAFTA corridor, where north-south transborder railway traffic is growing annually at between 12 per cent and 14 per cent.

The carriers plan to utilize two main interchanges:
 

• Jackson, Miss., for traffic moving between southern KCSR territory or Mexico and CN or IC territory;
• Springfield, Ill., for traffic moving between CN and northern IC territory, and U.S. Midwest KCSR territory.
To improve customer service and operating efficiency at Jackson - a critical junction between IC and KCSR -- the railways have agreed to arrange for joint operation of yards, terminals, transload and intermodal facilities.

Under a separate access agreement, subject to STB approval of the CN-IC merger, CN and KCSR plan investments in automotive, intermodal and transload facilities at Memphis, Dallas, Kansas City and Chicago to capitalize on the growth potential represented by the marketing agreement. The railways' access to the proposed terminals would be assured for the 25-year life span of the facilities, regardless of any change in corporate control.

Under the terms of this access agreement, KCSR would also extend its rail system in the Gulf area. For traffic other than coal, KCSR would receive overhead trackage rights on the merged CN-IC in Mississippi between Jackson and Palmer, and overhead haulage rights between Hattiesburg and Mobile, Ala.

The merged CN-IC would reach the Port of Gulfport from Hattiesburg under overhead haulage rights in Mississippi granted by KCSR.

The access agreement would give KCSR access to three chemical plants at Geismar, La., now served by IC, with associated overhead haulage rights from Geismar to Baton Rouge and, for traffic moving to or from certain eastern centres, from Baton Rouge to Jackson. KCSR access to the three Geismar plants is expected to take effect in the fall of 2000.

CN President and Chief Executive Officer Paul M. Tellier said: "The marketing agreement is good news for shippers. It's pro-competitive because of the new routing options and extended market reach that it offers shippers. Of significance to automotive and intermodal shippers, the agreement will permit CN to offer single-price, efficient service between points in Ontario and Michigan to Kansas City and Dallas and neighboring regions. It will give CN greater penetration of U.S. Southwest markets and the ability to develop a Canada-Mexico rail freight market. The access agreement would also pave the way for investments in important new terminal facilities and give CN broader reach in the southern U.S. states."

KCSR President and Chief Executive Officer Michael Haverty said: "The marketing agreement will improve service performance and reliability by providing increased routing options for shippers and reducing transit time by improving equipment and locomotive utilization. KCSR access to chemical producers at Geismar under the access agreement would certainly enhance rail competition."

IC President and Chief Executive Officer John D. McPherson said: "This new alliance builds on IC's history of working with other carriers. It builds on the strengths of the IC route structure and reliable service offering. Not only do we provide the link between Canada and Texas/Mexico, IC will have opportunities to originate and terminate business to and from CN points and to and from KCSR points, immediately expanding the reach of shippers along our line."

CN, IC and KCSR expect new jobs would be generated by increased revenue flowing from the extended network reach of the carriers' automotive and intermodal customers.

The previously announced merger of CN and IC will create the fifth-largest  railway in North America, serving Canada from Vancouver to Halifax, and the  rapidly growing north-south trade corridor, including service between Detroit,  Chicago, St. Louis, Memphis and Jackson, New Orleans and Mobile.

KCSR's parent, Kansas City Southern Industries Inc. (NYSE: KSU) is a  transportation and financial asset management company with headquarters in  Kansas City. KCSR's 6,000-mile rail network of companies and affiliates  include the Kansas City Southern Railway Company, the Texas-Mexican Railway, Transportacion Ferroviaria Mexicana (TFM), the wholly-owned Gateway Western Railway Company (GWWR) and the Panama Canal Railway Company, a joint venture with Mi-Jack Products Inc. KCSR's rail network, and those of its affiliates, extend from Kansas City, East St. Louis, Springfield, Ill., and Meridian, Miss., to Mexico City. -Canadian National

Please check this location daily, as new information will be posted, as it becomes available. If you have news to report or information regarding railroads in the Eastern United States, please send e-mail to Kevin Burkholder at KBurkholder@psghs.edu