CSX curtails operations at its major yard in Chicago

CSX has significantly reduced operations at Barr Yard in Riverdale, Ill. , its major Chicago-area terminal, and has shifted most of its switching work to the Belt Railway of Chicago and Indiana Harbor Belt.

“CSX is reducing operations at Barr Yard as part of the company’s ongoing effort to improve how we operate across the network,” railroad spokesman Austin Staton tells Trains.

“We’re shifting certain traffic flows to reduce redundant processing in Chicago and leveraging established partner switching capacity, like the BRC and IHB, to create a more direct network flow. The goal is to improve efficiency, reduce transit times, and provide more reliable service.”

Barr Yard, which has been one of CSX’s top 10 terminals by volume, typically had a daily inventory of between 1,400 and 1,800 cars this year, according to data reported by the Chicago Transportation Coordination Office. As of last week an average of 1,113 cars were in the yard.

Today only 228 cars were in the yard’s inventory, a figure that included 118 empty petcoke cars in storage, according to a CSX (NASDAQ: CSX) source. Barr’s switching work is now being handled by BRC’s Clearing Yard and IHB’s Blue Island Yard. CSX also eliminated a daily transfer job between Barr Yard and Canadian National’s Kirk Yard in Gary, Ind.

Road freights are now taking those cars to and from Kirk Yard and bypassing switching at Barr in the process. In addition, CSX has dropped merchandise train pair M326/M327 that ran between Barr Yard and Grand Rapids, Mich. Traffic those trains handled is now being routed around the horn via Garrett, Ind.

; Toledo, Ohio; and Detroit, according to union officials. “We are closely monitoring performance as these changes are implemented to ensure minimal disruption and deliver maximum benefits to our customers and the communities we serve,” Staton says.

“CSX remains committed to transparent communication with employees, customers, and other stakeholders as we evaluate the success of this transition and consider any future adjustments.” Joe Ciemny, the chairman of SMART-TD union local 1534, says a dozen two-person yard jobs were eliminated over the weekend as part of the changes at Barr.

“We’re fighting this,” he says. “We feel this is unfair labor practices on their behalf.” Under the B&OCT contract, the union’s members have the right to perform all of the railroad’s switching in the Chicago terminal, Ciemny says. Farming it out to other railroads violates the collective bargaining agreement, he says.

Several yard and local jobs remain based at Barr to serve area customers. Subscribe to FreightWaves’ Rail e-newsletter and get the latest insights on rail freight right in your inbox.