Railroad News

CSX and Chicago officials earlier this week held a groundbreaking ceremony for an expansion of the 63rd Street intermodal container storage yard.

The more than $25 million facility, expected to begin operations in December, will provide additional options for manufacturers and distributors throughout the region, CSX officials said in a press release.

CSX, Chicago, Illinois state and federal officials last week gathered to mark the completion of the Argo Connections, the 32nd project to be completed of the 70 that are part of the Chicago Region Environmental and Transportation Efficiency (CREATE) Program.

Known as CREATE project B9, the Argo work involved the construction of a new double-track connection and crossovers — switches that allow trains to pass one another, rather than waiting behind one another — between the Belt Railway Co. of Chicago (BRC) and Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad (IHB)/CSX line at Archer Avenue and 63rd Street.

CSX will provide rail transportation to Novelis Inc.’s future $2.5 billion aluminum recycling and rolling plant in Bay Minette, Alabama, the Class I announced yesterday.

The low-carbon facility will be the first fully integrated aluminum mill built in the United States in 40 years, CSX officials said in a press release.

CSX yesterday announced first-quarter 2022 net earnings of $859 million, or 39 cents per share, compared to $706 million, or 31 cents per share, in the same period last year.

First-quarter operating income totaled $1.28 billion compared to $1.1 billion in the prior year. Revenue rose 21% to $3.41 billion, as an overall revenue-per-unit increase of 24% more than offset a 2% decline in volume, CSX officials said in a press release.

The Surface Transportation Board late last week approved CSX's application to acquire Pan Am Systems and its short-line subsidiaries, including Pan Am Railways Inc.

CSX officials expect to close on the acquisition on June 1. Pan Am owns rail lines and provides rail service on a freight-rail network in New England, from Maine in the north to the Boston region in the south, and west to near Albany, New York.