WASHINGTON, D.C. — Acting on shippers’ complaints of serious CSX rail freight delays, hub congestions and other issues throughout its 21,000-mile rail route, the federal Surface Transportation Board (STB) has set a public hearing for Sept. 12 to review CSX’s performance since service disruptions first started several months ago.

 

Within months after new CSX CEO Hunter Harrison instituted a dramatic reorganization plan to cut costs – which included idling some trains, re-routing service to longer routes, closing some important rail switching hubs and laying off 2,300 of its 27,000-person workforce – farmers and other shippers have reported serious freight delays, according to the STB.

After a series of board letters to CSX that began in June ordering the carrier to make service improvements, and after service problems continued, the federal regulator on August 13 told CSX to submit by August 24 a new 120-day daily operational plan to correct its shipping issues (which it did).

As problems grew more serious, the STB last week ordered the September hearing. If the service problems aren’t corrected, the board could order more stringent oversight as it has in the past with other transportation companies.

In a letter early last month to Harrison, the STB wrote, “We are very troubled by the apparent lack of communication with customers and urge your immediate attention to remedy this situation.”

Customers from the Midwest and from along CSX’s East Coast service routes started reporting daily widespread rail freight delays and traffic bottlenecks to CSX and said when the company failed to respond to complaints, they reported the issues to the STB.

As service delays continued, the STB sent a second letter to Harrison on July 27, requesting that CSX immediately set up weekly service calls with the STB’s Rail Customer and Public Assistance staff in order to “better understand the scope and magnitude of CSX’s railroad performance issues and its efforts to resolve these problems.”

During the weekly calls, the letter said “CSX should provide an overview of its operations including congestion at critical rail yards, availability of equipment and manpower, local spot and pull reports and service to customers with critical needs.”

In a statement last week, the STB said despite the federal oversight, the agency found no tangible service improvements and continued “widespread degradation of rail service.” Because of this, the STB issued an order August 13 for CSX to submit a new operating plan for the remaining months of 2017, to be filed with the STB no later than August 24.

The demand to CSX outlined a set of performance indicators the STB said was vital in assessing its service recovery efforts. They include:

•Train performance of on-time departures and ontime arrivals

•Railcar connections (right car/right train)

•Weekly railcar orders versus order fulfillment percentage

•Gateway/interchange performance for key gateways reporting average daily cars interchanged for inbound and outbound trains

•Last mile performance reporting industry spot-andpull percentages

•Number of locomotives in service with the number of personnel in service and train re-crew rates

•Weekly number of problem logs generated for car delay, missed switched and bad order cars Following complaints leveled against CSX by dozens of trade groups that prompted the STB actions, Harrison blasted the Rail Customer Coalition last week, calling their complaints “grossly exaggerated.”