Info on CSX Grand Rapids to Chicago line - Trains Magazine

 CShaveRR wrote:

The new signal is interesting--can't see that unless it replaces one or more old ones (adjustment of block length).

CSX in Michigan, in my opinion, may have been dealt a death blow when most of  CP's overhead trains went to NS instead.  I don't think that any through Chicago-Detroit business goes this way any more--in fact, our traffic to Grand Rapids is routed most of the time via Toledo.

As always, the Chicago-Detroit line can be divided pretty much into two parts, with Grand Rapids in the middle.  My suspicion (and that's all it is right now) is that one of these two segments is doomed to be cut.  The question is which one is the weaker link--the one to Detroit, with its old trestle at Grand Ledge, or the one to Chicago, with its killer (in Midwestern terms) grade out of New Richmond.  I'm not sure Amtrak is in the equation--if CSX wants to get rid of its line between Chicago and Grand Rapids, they could run the Grand Rapids train via (or out of) Kalamazoo instead (provided NS or the new Michigan Central allows it).

Fact is, Michigan is probably still overbuilt in terms of mainline trackage, and something's going to give.  And of the three major routes across the state, CSX's is the one that's now least able to justify its existence.

     The new signal is part of a project to replace the code line on the route.  All I can say is the faster the better, right now as it is, the dispatcher can only line one signal at a time. The line also goes into code fail anytime a small storm goes through.  The project will go into full swing in the spring of 08.

     As for the future of the line, lets look at it in the sections you describe.  Right now east of Grand Rapids there are 10 to 12 coal trains a week going from Porter to the power plant at West Olive.  These are 18000 ton monsters that require a push at Helper, a neat little operation.  Word around the office is that the plant will be expanded soon, and that coal traffic will double.  There is also a ethanol plant planned between Riverside and Kirk, that will add couple of trains a week.  There is a good amount of local business at Holland, so much so that a daily road job is stationed there. There is also 1 Amtrak that goes each way a day. One of the killer things about a Chicago to Grand Rapids routing, is that as it is now traffic needs to go over the NS trackage from East Curtis to Porter.  The NS is not known for taking trains right away.  Now, I have heard that CSX wants to put in a diamond at Porter, to connect to the Porter branch, and has even bought land at Porter for this construction.  If that is true I do not know.   However I think that the West Olive coal traffic alone will keep this track around for long time. 

    East of Grand Rapids is a different story. Right now there are two trains each way a day from Grand Rapids for both Toledo and Detroit.  As for local traffic there is a small coal plant at the MSU campus in East Lansing.  It gets switched a couple times a week.  There are two large grain elevators, one at Grand Ledge, and one at Weberville.  Lansing gets a little traffic, along with numerous small industrys between Grand Rapids and Fox. 

    Traffic that travels the entire line from Porter to Plymouth is a pretty light.  Right now there is CP hauledge train ,X500, that runs five days a week.  There is also the occasional coal train or rock train that runs from Chicago to the SBS at Flint.  If and when a diamond gets put back in at Porter, I think there is a future for this line.

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