WCBC

May 12th, 2018 by WCBC Radio

WCBC News has learned that a number of CSX Employees were walked off the property at the Cumberland operation of CSX at 3 PM Friday. The Cumberland Times News is quoting railroad officials that about 100 jobs have been affected. Ironically, it was a year ago this month that WCBC received a photo that started a period of uncertainty regarding the CSX operation here.  We obtained a photo showing the bowl part of the yard below the "hump," nearly empty.  The now deceased CEO of CSX, Hunter Harrison, had been brought in by an investor group to implement his "precision railroading" concept which involved not utilizing humps, and instead putting trains together via flat track switching.

Harrison died in December, succeeded by protege James Foote, who said he would be continuing the work that Harrison had begun.  The first quarter of 2018 has been relatively quiet on the local employment front, until we received the reports today.

For its part, CSX has been tight lipped, saying only that all of its operations were undergoing review by company officials.  That statement, in and of itself, has been an ominous cloud hanging over the heads of local railroad families, many of which have had employees at CSX, and predecessors Chessie, B & O, and Western Maryland Railway, for generations.