CSX starts to divert freight
With the Port of Baltimore closed for the foreseeable future to maritime traffic, the CSX railroad has begun diverting international freight to New York and considering moving more coal to terminals it serves in Virginia.
The railroad giant said Wednesday that it has expanded service between Baltimore and New York to handle freight that typically flows through terminals along the Patapsco River where the harbor is now largely closed after a large cargo ship collided with and destroyed the Francis Scott Key Bridge.
“CSX is taking proactive steps to help mitigate freight shipment disruptions in the transportation industry by launching a dedicated service solution between Baltimore and New York, in response to the devastating March 26 incident,” said Sheriee Bowman, a spokesperson for Jacksonville, Florida-based CSX Corp.
That service will largely handle shipping containers, the colorful truck-sized boxes that can be shifted quickly between ships, trucks and rail cars.
CSX told customers the day after the accident to anticipate shipment delays. The railroad also said it plans to keep its Curtis Bay Coal Piers open even though international shipments out of the port have been suspended.
Those piers, coupled with the CONSOL Energy Baltimore
Marine terminal in the Canton Industrial Area, accounted for 28% of the nation’s coal exports last year, according to census data, second only to the greater Norfolk, Virginia, harbor.
Neither of those terminals can export coal by oceangoing ships as long as the main channel in and out of Baltimore, clogged with bridge wreckage, remains closed.
CSX has continued to send coal trains to Baltimore, Bowman said.
“CSX currently has capacity to dispatch additional trains to CSX-served coal terminals in Baltimore before reaching pile space limits,” she said.
But the company is eyeing coal terminals it serves in Newport News, Virginia, to keep coal flowing to its international customers while the Baltimore port remains shut down.
In a LinkedIn post from his verified account, CSX President and CEO Joe Hinrichs said he visited Dominion Terminal Associates in Newport News to discuss how the railroad and the terminal “can work together to export more coal for our customers while the port in Baltimore is blocked.”
Baltimore primarily exports coal from the northern Appalachia coal fields in western Pennsylvania and northern West Virginia. About half of the 28 million short tons of coal exported from the port in 2023 went to India, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.