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500 Water Street (J300)

 

Danford L. Price

Assistant Vice President -

Service Measurements

 

 

August 11, 1999

 

 

Mr. Melvin F. Clemens, Jr.

Director, Office of Compliance and Enforcement

Surface Transportation Board

The Mercury Building

1925 K Street, N.W., Suite 780

Washington, DC 20423

 

Dear Mr. Clemens:

 

Enclosed with this transmittal letter are CSX Transportation’s operational monitoring reports to the Board for the week ending Friday, August 6.

 

The reports this week again show a continuation of normal operations from the previous week. Terminal dwell for the system remained steady at 29.9 hours, with last week reported at 29.7 hours. Total cars on line increased slightly by 1354 cars, or less than 1% from last week. Line-of-road velocity decreased slightly from 18.7 to 18.4 MPH. A special area of emphasis continues to be the Toledo Terminal, where the operating systems cut-over was completed this week. These changes now combine the entire Terminal under the CSXT operating system.

In examining the data CSXT provides the STB, Conrail Transaction Council, and the AAR, we would offer the following observations and interpretations:

 

Gateway Operations

 

Measurements of interchange timeliness with foreign carriers remain at much the same level week-to-week, and have not changed significantly since the beginning of the integration. The total percentage of trains On-Time to 2 hours late to connections improved to 33% over the previous week of 25%. This performance level has not created any reported problems for the Western gateway carriers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yards and Terminals

 

Yard and terminal measurements show a generally favorable trend. Cars-on-hand at Selkirk (Albany) and Buffalo (Frontier) have shown a decrease for the past four weeks. Dwell times at Cincinnati (Queensgate) increased this week but the average cars handled went down indicating that dwell time has not affected yard fluidity. Average cars handled at Cumberland, increased due to rerouted traffic and that impacted their dwell number a little more than 6 percentage points to 36.0. Dwell numbers this week also fell at Toledo (Walbridge) and Syracuse NY.

 

Cars on-hand have increased slightly at Blue Island and Willard, OH. Toledo (Stanley) and Detroit also reported an increase in yard dwell hours. These yards have been impacted by scheduled track maintenance now underway, and by the increase of traffic associated with coal and auto shipments returning to full volumes. Walbridge and Stanley, the two Toledo yards, should begin to improve with the implementation of common computer systems.

 

These fluctuations are all within normal operational control limits and CSXT will continue to drive toward improvement.

 

Corridor Performance

 

Performance over the six measured corridors declined slightly. This was due primarily to traffic level increases following automotive and coal mining vacation periods. Chicago-to-Baltimore, and East St. Louis-to-Baltimore showed the highest number of trains delayed. New Orleans-to-Carolinas performance decreased the last reporting week mainly due to track maintenance work as a result of a rail test program. July and August are the highest track maintenance work level of the year and all corridors have been affected.

 

Shared Areas

 

Daily on hand car counts decreased at Pavonia and North Yard for the third consecutive week. Oak Island on-hand volume remained steady, and while heavy is typical of the levels seen since Split Day. North Yard and Oak Island reported decreases in terminal dwell while Pavonia reported a marginal increase due to movement of cars to industry that had been held for prospective loading. All three locations displayed fluidity improvements at week’s end.

 

On-Time train origination improved 2% in the North Jersey SAA, 5% in the South Jersey SAA and 21% in the Detroit SAA or 6% composite for all three locations. Road train delays decreased over the prior week. Power availability was steady with 13 trains delayed, up one more from the prior week. Crew delays were reduced to 19 trains from 25 the prior week.

 

Additional Measurements

 

Cars Offered in Interchange were reduced drastically from a daily average of 185 the prior week to an average of 25 for the current reported week. Total Train Delay per the daily snapshot

increased from a weekly total of 23 the previous week to 44 for the current reported week.

The increase was seen in Congestion/Staging which was spread over the acquired territory and

not concentrated at any one or two locations. Blocked Sidings or Multiple Main Lines also saw an increase from a weekly total of 2 the previous week to 22 for the current reported week. The majority of these trains were holding out of Indianapolis (Avon). Locomotive Out of Service Ratio improved to 5.1% from 5.9% the previous week.

 

 

Our goal is to progress all of these measurements in a positive direction. These measurements do not suggest any significant negative trends. Nonetheless we recognize we need to continue our efforts to reach levels of service that will exceed customer expectations. We feel that our steady progress over the past weeks has positioned us for the fall peak period.

 

 

 

Sincerely,

 

 

Danford L. Price

Assistant Vice President

Service Measurements

 

 

Yard Performance

(Composite of NS/CSX Traffic)

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Location

Measure

8/2/99

8/3/99

8/4/99

8/5/99

8/6/99

Oak Island, NJ

Fluid Capacity

1200

1200

1200

1200

1200

Cars On Hand - Loaded

683

500

710

679

678

Cars On Hand - Empty

575

468

760

813

795

Cars On Hand - Total

1258

968

1470

1492

1473

Cars Handled

693

560

638

661

493

Dwell Hours

58.0

56.3

58.3

43.4

44.8

Pavonia, NJ

Fluid Capacity

900

900

900

900

900

Cars On Hand - Loaded

386

215

272

224

224

Cars On Hand - Empty

264

140

277

273

272

Cars On Hand - Total

650

355

549

497

496

Cars Handled

463

381

357

482

268

Dwell Hours

67.5

40.4

64.7

45.0

24.9

North Yard, MI

Fluid Capacity

850

850

850

850

850

Cars On Hand - Loaded

165

187

184

203

203

Cars On Hand - Empty

139

176

155

111

106

Cars On Hand - Total

304

363

339

314

309

Cars Handled

177

320

200

316

317

Dwell Hours

96.7

46.1

49.6

29.9

29.0

CSX Comments:

Daily on hand car counts decreased at Pavonia and North Yard for the third

consecutive week. Oak Island on-hand volume remained steady, and while heavy

is well within the levels seen since Split Day. Terminal dwell reflects all cars handled

in those yards (excluding relay cars) irrespective of car status. Methodology for

capturing and reporting terminal dwell was changed this week. Terminal dwell

will now reflect a greater percentage of traffic. While overall elapsed time appeared

to have increased marginally from last week, overall terminal dwell time decreased

from 51.5 to 50.3 hours. North Yard and Oak Island reported decreases in terminal

dwell while Pavonia reported a marginal increase due to movement of cars to industry

that had been held for prospective loading. All three locations displayed fluidity

improvements at weeks end.

Train Originations

(Composite of NS/CSX Traffic)

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Location

Measure

8/2/99

8/3/99

8/4/99

8/5/99

8/6/99

North Jersey SAA

Number of Originations

7

22

21

21

20

% Ontime

86%

45%

38%

43%

60%

% Late 0-2 Hours

14%

23%

33%

38%

20%

% Late 2-4 Hours

0%

9%

10%

10%

0%

% Late 4-6 Hours

0%

5%

10%

10%

10%

% Late GT 6 Hours

0%

18%

10%

0%

10%

South Jersey SAA

Number of Originations

7

7

10

10

8

% Ontime

29%

0%

40%

20%

38%

% Late 0-2 Hours

14%

0%

0%

10%

13%

% Late 2-4 Hours

0%

0%

10%

10%

0%

% Late 4-6 Hours

14%

0%

20%

20%

13%

% Late GT 6 Hours

43%

0%

30%

40%

38%

Detroit SAA

Number of Originations

4

5

7

7

7

% Ontime

25%

80%

29%

86%

43%

% Late 0-2 Hours

25%

0%

14%

14%

14%

% Late 2-4 Hours

0%

0%

14%

0%

43%

% Late 4-6 Hours

25%

20%

29%

0%

0%

% Late GT 6 Hours

25%

0%

14%

0%

0%

CSX Comments:

Road train delays decreased over the prior week. Power delays remained fairly steady

with 13 trains delayed up only 1 train from the prior week. Crew delays were reduced

to 19 trains from 25 the prior week.

CSXT Cars Offered in Interchange but not Accepted

(Snapshot at Midnight for Day Measured)

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Daily

Measure

Railroad Offered To

8/2/99

8/3/99

8/4/99

8/5/99

8/6/99

Average

Cars Offered

NS

0

0

0

60

0

12

All Other

58

2

1

1

1

13

Total

58

2

1

61

1

25

Measures all cars in offered interchange status on acquired Conrail territory only. Volumes are listed by cars offered

to NS (Norfolk Southern) and All Other Railroads.

CSXT Train Delay

(Snapshot at 14:30 for Day Measured)

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Weekly

Measure

Cause of Delay

8/2/99

8/3/99

8/4/99

8/5/99

8/6/99

Total

Train Delay

Crew

0

0

0

0

0

0

Power

4

7

0

6

5

22

Congestion/Staging

3

3

6

7

3

22

Total

7

10

6

13

8

44

Measures the number of scheduled road trains being held for crew, power, and congestion/staging on Conrail

acquired territory only (includes trains in Shared Assets Area for owner road).

CSXT Blocked Sidings or Multiple Main Lines

(Snapshot at 14:30 for Day Measured)

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Weekly

Measure

Track Type

8/2/99

8/3/99

8/4/99

8/5/99

8/6/99

Total

Blocked

Sidings

0

0

2

3

0

5

Multiple Main Lines

3

3

4

4

3

17

Total

3

3

6

7

3

22

Measures blocked sidings or multiple main lines with or without crews for other than normal operating purposes

on Conrail acquired territory only.

CSXT Locomotive Out-of-Service Ratio

(Average of 3 Snapshots for Day Measured)

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Daily

Measure

Locomotive

8/2/99

8/3/99

8/4/99

8/5/99

8/6/99

Average

Locomotive OOS

OOS Ratio

5.6

5.0

4.8

5.4

4.8

5.1

Average of the 07:00, 15:00, and 23:00 out of service ratio snapshots for CSXT ownership locomotives.