What is Conrail?

[mike nowakowski]

Looking at Sterling yard i am wondering what is Conrail? I think i have an idea, something to deal with CSX and NS? So what is Conrail?

[conrailmike]

http://www.conrail.com/

[mike nowakowski]

Thats what i thought its a Joint operation of CSX and NS.

[sd70accsxt700]

No its not a joint opperatin, it is Conrail. Conrail is now a two system area, where they (CSX NS) could not figure out how to split the tracks up. So Conrail is a switching railraod for that area. There own employes, yardmasters, trainmasters, carmen, track men, ect. Only thing is when it comes time for track work (major tie project, ect. ) or something like that, usualy one of the Class 1 takes care of it.

[mike nowakowski]

So Conrail is its own railroad that is connected to either CSX or NS.

[sd70accsxt700]

Yes, some where it is connected to both. The only thing they do not have is there own locos and cars. They use locos from CSX and NS. It's only survives because they could not figure how to split it up, so insead of having wars all the time, CR is the middle man, to make both happy.

[midland sub]

The Conrail Shared Assets were a requirement by the STB to approve the Conrail split to continue competion in the Detroit and New Jersey operations of Conrail. It was more of a New Jersey thing than Detroit, as it took the monoply that Conrail had with the numerous chemical and industrial customers in New Jersey and finally introduced more rail options for them. As said above the Conrail crews switch the customers and the customer has the option to ship outside of the shared assets area via CSX or NS depending on who gives them the best pricing.

Try and find a copy of Rush Loving's book: The Men Who Loved Trains. You'll learn everything you need to know about the failure of the Penn Central, how Conrail was created and then split apart by CSX and NS. It will give a great understanding of how today's Class 1 railroads in Michigan, Indiana and Ohio got to where they are today.

[pudgy]

Can anyone else believe that only 11 years after the Conrail split, someone is asking WHAT Conrail is? No offense intended with this, I just find it a bit depressing...Seems like just yesterday when Big Blue traded down for Black/White and Gray/Yellow/Blue...

Eric

[SD80MAC]

It saddens me greatly Eric........

[conrailmike]

Me too.....Long live Big Blue!!

[Big Frank]

Conrail was actually started as a part of Amtrak but its sole purpose was to transport inmates from state to state on transfers in armored trains well after a few years of this the government saw how well they could run a railroad so they ended the inmate transfer trains and jumped into the freight business thus why there logo looked like a broken handcuff . after years of that the Gov wanted to end its railroad program so they split it up and gave it to the other class ones that roamed there area.

[chapmaja]

When did the government actually get out of the freight railroad business? I don't think it was when they split Conrail up, I think it was way before that.

Wasn't Conrail a publically traded company since the mid 1980's? I'm sure the government held some shares of the company for "safekeeping" but the majority was publically owned prior to the purchase by NS-CSX wasn't it?

[chapmaja]

IIRC the way the Conrail Shared Assets (CSA) areas work is this. Conrail is jointly owned by NS and CSX. Conrail still has its own employees and runs its own trains within the CSA area. The power is supplied to CSA based on a portion of the traffic they get from the CSA area. For example, if 75 percent of the traffic from the Detroit CSA was leaving via CSX, the 75% of the power used by Conrail in the CSA area would be supplied by CSX. This is recalcualted monthly as I recall. I assume the actual useage is power, but is something like horsepower hours.

There is also a way the revenues and profits are split from the CSA area's amongst the owners as well, but I'm not sure how that is determined. I don't know if the split is 50-50 or if it is 58-42 like the split of the company was.

I know there had been rumors of talks between CSX and NS about ditching the CSA for the Detroit and South Jersey areas, with one railroad getting each. The would have left North Jersey as the only CSA area remaining. I don't see the STB agreeing to that however in the best interest of shippers.

[conrailmike]

Conrail was actually started as a part of Amtrak but its sole purpose was to transport inmates from state to state on transfers in armored trains well after a few years of this the government saw how well they could run a railroad so they ended the inmate transfer trains and jumped into the freight business thus why there logo looked like a broken handcuff . after years of that the Gov wanted to end its railroad program so they split it up and gave it to the other class ones that roamed there area.

....a broken handcuff

When did the government actually get out of the freight railroad business? I don't think it was when they split Conrail up, I think it was way before that.

Wasn't Conrail a publically traded company since the mid 1980's? I'm sure the government held some shares of the company for "safekeeping" but the majority was publically owned prior to the purchase by NS-CSX wasn't it?

Conrail went public in March of 1987, even then NS and CSX were wanting to buy it but the govt. said no.