NS, CSX discuss capital plans for 2016

[NS Newsfeed]

The NS capital budget includes $1.2 billion on capital engineering projects in 2016, including its investment in positive train control, Ronald D. Patton, NS division engineer, Virginia, said in his presentation. That budget includes 448 miles of new rail, 2.4 million new ties and 2.4 million tons of ballast. $64 million is budgeted for bridge construction and $15 for contract bridge repair.

Major projects on the NS agenda include more than $125 million for new and continuing intermodal construction work; some $50.7 million for various capacity improvement work between Chicago and Conway Yard in Pittsburgh; and public-private partnerships on both the Indiana Gateway project — involving some $67 million in FRA-funded improvements east of Chicago — and the North Carolina passenger capacity project, a $45 million project.

In a Thursday presentation, CSX Transportation Assistant Vice President, Engineering Tod Echoer offered no figures on the railroad's capital budget for 2016, but did discuss some specific projects. Among them are lengthening three sidings on the Main Line Subdivision (Lousville, Ky., to Nashville, Tenn.), which is currently limited to 6,500-foot train lengths because of its short sidings; expansion of the new Casky Yard (Hopkinsville, Ky.); and several projects in the Richmond, Va., area, inducing adding two main lines to bypass Acca Yard in Richmond, Va. Also ongoing is the National Gateway project, creating double-stack clearance from the East Coast to Chicago. Fourteen of the 21 National Gateway projects are complete, and six are nearing completion, while work is underway on the largest remaining piece of the project, the Virginia Avenue Tunnel under Washington, D.C.