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[ December 5, 2024 // John Saunders ]CSX: A Terminal Network Transformed
US railroad CSX is leading a revolution in terminal efficiency. Using its operation at Fairburn, Georgia as a template, it is transforming the efficiency of intermodal operations throughout its 20,000-mile network. It’s as much about changing ways of working as introducing clever new technology. Fortunately, CSX has some great people to help it achieve that.
CSX has transformed the efficiency and effectiveness of one of its key hubs, the Fairburn intermodal terminal. Lying southwest of the city of Atlanta, Georgia, on the Roosevelt Highway, the terminal is a lynchpin of the leading intermodal carrier’s operations on the US East Coast.
Fairburn is one of the most highly automated facilities in the CSX network. The carrier has invested heavily in new technology such as remote operated cranes.
CSX thought long and hard about upgrading Fairburn, reveals CSX Vice President of Intermodal Operations, Carrie Crozier.
She says: “It’s this great big impressive terminal on this beautiful plot of land. The potential is there, especially with the amount of traffic that passes through Atlanta.”
Talking to CSX customers, it soon became apparent that while Fairburn’s tech was great, the facility wasn’t always performing as well as it could – it was a missed opportunity.
She explains: “We looked at how the operation was running and our operating plan, leveraging experience from elsewhere in our network.”
“We have a lot of really great people across the network at CSX, so we brought in people internally, both from the operating side as well as the commercial front. Working together, we changed the operating plan very quickly. We identified 36 areas of opportunity which we tackled – one by one.
“We got more feedback from customers and made further upgrades and at same time we were working with our employees, giving them a really safe and comfortable place to come to work.”
CSX continued to work through the process changes, and put in data and analytics to look at how it was performing. A key metric of success for intermodal terminals are truck turn times.
Crozier recalls: “Our truck turn times were definitely industry lagging when we started, but now they’re best in class. So the experience for truckers coming in and out of Fairburn is very much improved since the changes. Moreover, this terminal was previously believed to be maxed out, but we’ve now been able to create additional capacity – or realized all the unused capacity. That’s helped us in many different ways, for example being able to work through disruptions. We’re also seeing growth through Fairburn, especially with key partners that move their business through there.”
Experience gained in Fairburn has benefited other hubs on the CSX network, including Winter Haven in Central Florida. “CSX has a great terminal network in really key, populated growth areas,” Crozier states.
Winter Haven is in fact, now “like a Fairburn 2.0,” says Crozier. “We’ve leveraged some of those best practices at Winter Haven, and we’ve seen a better customer experience and better throughput. Transferring some of those lessons learned and those practices into other terminals has been very effective.”
The process is set to continue throughout the CSX network. For example: “We’ve got a great footprint in New Jersey, and in Baltimore, Philadelphia, key areas where we have really nice opportunities for growth – it’s really exciting.”
With 31 terminals plus 14 port operations, CSX offers one of the most comprehensive networks of any US railroad, giving businesses multiple shipping options – vital in moving traffic off the highways onto rail and getting freight into the heart of the nation’s urban centers.
The railroad business is about much more than hardware these days. Smart carriers like CSX are leveraging data, so that they can forecast better and align capacity to traffic levels.
Crozier explains: “We looked at equipment that we use across all of these terminals, and we started to map out and benchmark ourselves a roadmap, how we should operate the types of equipment. With that, we’ve been able to reduce the footprint of equipment that we have quite substantially. Not only does that give us resilience, it gives us continuity, and also allows us to have access to quality maintenance and repair to give us more resilience.
“At the same time, we’ve focused on the development of people and the continuous development of our team. In some cases we’ve added some resources promoted from within, but also brought in external people with different backgrounds and expertize.”
The result, she says, is “a team that really is both service focused and operationally focused, and also very much aligned to our commercial group as well as our service partners. In order to capitalize on the business opportunities that are in front of us, we have to be able to do things differently – and this CSX team has really embraced that.”
CSX spends a lot of time developing its people and practices and giving them opportunities and a long-term career – challenging them, but also making them feel appreciated – and safe.
CSX is keen to encourage more women into railroading, as they have been historically very under-represented in the industry. Carrie Crozier, although she comes from a railroad family herself, never saw herself getting involved in the business but now feels she understands the challenges that many women face in the industry. “I think I have an obligation to pay back for the good things that have happened to me and I’m committed to finding a way and carving a path for women to be able to succeed in meaningful ways.”
CSX’s new-look terminal has proved its worth during several disruptions that have affected the supply chain. One was the ILA port strike, which led to a shutdown of shipping terminals on the US East Coast and Gulf, though in the event it was a short-lived affair.
In the past, the normal course of action would be to shut down operations down and then restart after the strike was over. “But we took a different approach this time,” says Carrie Crozier. “We recognized that we didn’t know how long the labor disruption would last. But we were in great shape across our network with capacity and great footprints in all of our terminals. Instead, we levered the fluidity of the network and the terminals and continued rail operations right up until the time that the labor disruption occurred.
“We created a pot of resilience at each one of our terminals – we allowed traffic to continue into our terminals where we would stage and so lessened the burden and the shock on the overall supply chain by allowing for a more metered shutdown and then a more reactive startup. We were able to start the flow back to the ports and from the ports. From a disruption standpoint, it was a non-event.”
Crozier adds: “We work with a really great commercial team led by Maryclare Kenney, our Vice President of Intermodal and Auto, as well as our supply chain partners – it was just a really collaborative approach.”
Recent hurricanes have also tested the strength and resilience of CSX’s terminals, Crozier continues: “Afterwards, our first priority was to make sure that all of our employees were safe and they were well taken care of – they are the backbone of any resilience and any recovery that we are going to have to work through.
“After that, the startup plan and the recovery plans were all seamless because it was done collaboratively with our employees, lots of open communication within and outside the organization. I spent time on the phone with key customers and we worked through each other’s challenges together. It was very much all inclusive.”
(CSX also contributed $150,000 to support American Red Cross relief and recovery efforts in communities impacted by Hurricanes Helene and Milton. It also matched dollar for dollar donations that company employees made to the agency.)
CSX is committed to continuing to leverage data and analytics to continually refine its service offerings, driving further growth and unlocking the full potential of its terminal network.
Carrie Crozier concludes: “I’m looking forward to what the future of CSX is going to look like. CSX is differentiating itself from the competition, and I think that it’s going to be the bar that’s going to be set for the industry. There’s just so much opportunity in front of us.”
About CSX
CSX, based in Jacksonville, Florida, is a premier transportation company, providing rail, intermodal and rail-to-truck transload services and solutions to customers across a broad array of markets. Its network of 20,000 route miles in 26 states, the District of Columbia and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec connects every major metropolitan area in the eastern United States, or nearly two-thirds of the population. It also links more than 240 short-line railroads and more than 70 ocean, river and lake ports.
CSX is also at the forefront of environmental, social, and governance (or ESG) efforts in the US railroad industry. It has operated the first ever hydrogen fuel cell locomotive in partnership with CPKC, it is introducing three battery-electric locomotives in Baltimore, MD in 2026 and has helped its customers avoid 12.9 million metric tonnes (14.2 million US tons) of CO2 by shipping by rail instead of truck in 2023. Its trains can move a ton of freight over 500 miles on the equivalent of just one gallon of fuel.
www.csx.com
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