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The Class Is continue to develop and upgrade e-business tools, but many customers still aren’t delving into that toolbox to complete transactions online. CSX Transportation is trying to change that.

Early this month, the Class I conducted its first-ever e-business customer seminar. Held Oct. 5-6 in Orlando, Fla., the event included presentations by several executives, including CSXT Assistant Vice President of Marketing and E-Business Ed Jenkins, and CSX Technology President John West. The seminar also featured a panel discussion and breakout training sessions on various e-business tools, such as shipping instructions, plant inventory, freight billing and shipment tracing.


CSXT officials want more customers to use the railroad’s e-business tools, says spokesperson Meg Scheu. Shippers can use the ShipCSX suite of online tools to obtain a rate quote, order freight cars, submit shipping instructions, request a plant switch or release empty cars, trace cars, pay an invoice, monitor demurrage or submit a freight claim.

Currently, 99.5 percent of all CSXT customers use a car ordering application, 98.3 percent of all shippers (excluding intermodal) use an electronic shipping tool and 93.4 percent of all customers use an e-billing application.


But only 76.7 percent of all intermodal customers and 51.5 percent of all non-intermodal shippers use an online plant switching tool.


“We have all the e-business tools in place now and want to let customers know how much easier it is to do business that way,” says Scheu.

CSXT plans to hold the e-business customer seminar annually.

— Jeff Stagl

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Genesee & Wyoming adds branches to network map

ILast month, two of Genesee & Wyoming Inc.’s (GWI) subsidiary railroads took ownership of dozens more track miles after the holding company completed a couple of deals.



GWI acquired the assets of the Chattahoochee & Gulf Railroad Co. Inc. (CHAT) and the H&S Railroad Co. Inc. (H&S) from Gulf & Ohio Railways for $6 million in cash.



Chattahoochee Bay Railroad Inc., a newly formed GWI subsidiary, will operate lines formerly owned by the railroads, which are contiguous to each other.



H&S primarily provides switching services for GE Rail Services’ Dothan, Ala., plant. CHAT operates a 29-mile line between Hilton, Ga., and Dothan and Taylor, Ala., and connects with GWI’s Bay Line and Chattahoochee Industrial railroads.



CHAT primarily handles overhead traffic between Norfolk Southern Railway and the Bay Line, and also interchanges with CSX Transportation. GWI officials expect the Chattahoochee Bay to move more than 5,500 carloads annually.



The holding company also exercised an option to purchase from NS a 12.5-mile line that runs through Portsmouth, Chesapeake and Suffolk, Va. GWI’s Commonwealth Railway (CWRY) will own and continue to operate the line.



New terminal on tap

CWRY will serve a $450 million APM Terminals container terminal in Portsmouth, Va., which will be completed in July 2007. GWI is spending $14 million (including $6 million in government grants) to construct a marshalling yard in Suffolk to facilitate a CWRY interchange with NS and CSXT, as well as install track connecting CWRY’s mainline to the new APM terminal.



The holding company also will upgrade existing track and improve crossing signals between the new yard and terminal.

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Raritan Central to serve New Jersey biodiesel plant

Next month, Raritan Central Railway L.L.C. will begin hauling soy oil for one of its newest customers: BioEnergy of America. The 16-mile railroad will deliver the freight to BioEnergy’s new $6 million plant in the Heller Industrial Park in Edison, N.J., where the company will process the soy oil into biodiesel fuel.



Raritan Central expects to move 2,000 carloads annually for BioEnergy, which plans to produce about 43 million gallons of biodiesel each year.



The company chose the park location because the plant will be located near the end-user, and have access to rail and truck service, according to Raritan Central, which serves Edison’s Heller and Raritan Center industrial parks.



“We have joined a significant trend in the rail industry — the emergence of biofuels as a source of carloads and revenues,” said Raritan Central President Eyal Shapira in the short line’s fall newsletter.

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Amplification The Indiana Rail Road Co. owns or retains trackage rights to more than 500 track miles; and interchanges with BNSF, CN, CPR, CSXT, NS, UP and other major Chicago Terminal District carriers, as well as Indiana Southern Railroad, Central Railroad Co. of Indiana, Louisville & Indiana Railroad Co., and Paducah & Louisville Railway Inc. A news item in the September 2006 issue didn’t mention all the railroads Indiana Rail Road interchanges with or factor trackage rights into the railroad’s total track miles.

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NEWS IN BRIEF

• CREATE partners formalize funding pact
  
  Public-private stakeholders in the Chicago Region Environmental and Transportation Efficiency (CREATE) program formalized a three-year, $330 million funding agreement. The federal government and state of Illinois each will provide $100 million; BNSF Railway Co., Canadian Pacific Railway, CSX Transportation, Norfolk Southern Railway, Union Pacific Railroad and Metra will contribute a combined $100 million; and the city of Chicago will provide $30 million.
  
  
• USDOT reviewing Amtrak board’s actions
  
  The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Office of Inspector General is reviewing how Amtrak’s board carries out its oversight responsibilities and scrutinizing board members’ expenses between fiscal-year 2002 and the present to ensure expenses comply with corporate guidelines. Democratic Amtrak Working Group members requested the investigation.
  
  
• UP unveils Utah terminal
  
  On Sept. 20, Union Pacific Railroad opened an $83 million, 260-acre intermodal terminal in Salt Lake City. Designed to handle 250,000 units annually, the facility triples the Class I’s international and domestic container capacity in the area. The terminal features five staging, four unloading, one receiving and one departure track, and more than 1,300 parking spaces.
  
  
• Steelworkers union OKs CPR contract
  
  United Steelworkers-represented clerical and intermodal workers ratified a three-year agreement with Canadian Pacific Railway. The contract increases wages, enhances benefits and provides a number of “work-life balance” provisions, according to the union.