Traffic on the Valley

[NW Mailing List]

Sam is correct about the Intermodal facility on the former Conrail north of Hagerstown.  Actually it will be at Greencastle, PA a few miles north of Hagerstown, and convenient to I-81.  Several years ago, NS hoped to place this facility on land they owned in the Vardo yard area south of Hagerstown.  The county objected to it because they did not want increased truck traffic on roads there. PA seems happy to be getting the facility.  It will be on a 200 acre site.  When N&W built Vardo, circa 1917, they bought a farm so they have a lot of acreage west of the yard that will be developed someday whether the locals like it or not.

If what I read is true about California's Pacific sea terminals losing container ships when the new canal is built across Central America, I predict the shipping will go to Gulf of Mexico ports, and NS will see a lot of northbound container traffic.  Presently, the new CSX terminal at Chambersburg, PA sees one inbound and one outbound container train each day.

--Rick Morrison 
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: NW Mailing List 
  To: NW Mailing List 
  Sent: Wednesday, September 09, 2009 10:55 AM
  Subject: Re: Automatic Train Control in N&WHS Newsletter


  Richard,

  I think the predictions of greatly increased traffic on the Valley were tied in with the expectation that a major intermodal terminal would now be constructed somewhere near or north of Hagerstown on the CR Cumberland Valley line.  Supposedly NS had wanted to route much of its intermodal traffic from the Northeast to the Mid-South down this line but Conrail was not being cooperative.  I think the expectation was that, with Conrail's foot-dragging out of the way, NS would get to work quickly in setting up the intermodal facility and rerouting traffic.  I recently saw an article (someone may have posted it on this site) announcing that NS is finally going to do this.  Makes you wonder if Conrail had really been the major problem.  Of course, the economy might have had something to do with the delay, but there was a long period of economic and traffic boom between the NS-Conrail merger and the present recession.

  Sam Putney




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