Cranes, trains and trucks

WORCESTER – A 43-foot-tall crane that can lift up to 100,000 pounds rolled forward next to a train track at CSX Corp.’s Intermodal Terminal on Grafton Street. When it reached the end of the rail, the crane slowly began turning its wide frame around, then powered toward the freight yard’s other track.

“It’s not like driving a car,” Renee Oppedisano quipped as she trailed the mechanical behemoth in a white pickup truck. The three other occupants of the truck gazed in amazement at the gigantic crane’s graceful rotation. But Ms. Oppedisano, who as terminal manager has seen this maneuver many times before, appeared indifferent.

“This happens all day,” she said.

Indeed, each day at CSX’s 80-acre terminal – one of 34 the company operates in the U.S. – has a familiar rhythm: Trains thunder through, cranes raise and drop containers, and loaded trucks pull in and out. Although small compared with other intermodal terminals in CSX’s vast U.S. network, the Worcester terminal, also known as a ramp, is one of the busiest in the Northeast.

“We consider this the gateway into the New England area, and we are the closest domestic ramp to the Boston market,” said CSX spokeswoman Katie Chimelewski. The company is the largest private owner of rail property in Massachusetts, presiding over 160 miles of active rail routes.

CSX took over the Grafton Street terminal in June 1999 when it acquired the Pennsylvania-based railroader Conrail. In 2012, CSX completed a $100 million expansion of the terminal, part of an agreement with the state to close its Beacon Park railyard and sell off track leading in and out of Boston, freeing it up for more commuter rail service.

Recently, the Telegram & Gazette got a behind-the-scenes look at a typical morning at the terminal, open 24 hours most days. A reporter and photographer toured the ramp with three CSX employees, who detailed the daily operations and pointed out ways the site has grown more efficient over the years.

CSX also shared its anxiety over how the state’s push to expand passenger rail service to link Boston and Springfield, known as the East-West rail project, could disrupt business in Worcester.

The company said the service would need to use its line now reserved for freight, which could lead to delays at the Worcester terminal, stymieing its entire New England market.

Trains in, trains out

It was one of those rare, brief periods of near idleness at the railyard.

Two trains had already rumbled through the terminal well before the T&G’s visit. Crews had finished moving one train’s haul, made up of dozens of containers, while boxes from the second train still sat on chassis along the track.

Three trains arrive at the terminal each day, Ms. Chimelewski said, though not at set times. Workers – mostly contracted by CSX or its customers – then load and unload the train before it departs for another terminal in CSX’s network. About 20 people work at the yard every day, including several city residents.

“Many of them live a stone’s throw from the ramp,” Ms. Oppedisano said.

The trains arriving at the yard travel from other terminals in the U.S. CSX could not say how many miles each trip averages.

“We ship to 13 different destinations from here,” Ms. Oppedisano said, adding, “We go as far south as Winter Haven, Florida, as far west as Louisville, Cincinnati and the Ohio River Valley, and as far north as the New York and New Jersey ports.”

As terminal manager, Ms. Oppedisano must make sure the yard has the equipment, including rail cars and chassis, needed to move freight each day. She often plans days out 48 hours in advance.

The terminal averages 3,300 lifts a week. CSX measures the volume of traffic that comes through the terminal by lifts, meaning every time one of the site’s four diesel-electric rubber tire gantry cranes picks up a box from the train and deposits it on a chassis.

Overall, CSX handles about 344,000 carloads of freight in the state, according to MassDOT.

UPS is one of the terminal’s biggest customers, Ms. Oppedisano said. “We service the three major UPS facilities in this area: Worcester, Shrewsbury and the Chelmsford yard.”

Railroaders like CSX welcome the constant presence of UPS trucks, which typically arrive early and leave quickly. In part, the containers hold orders from Amazon and other online retailers; more than once, Ms. Oppedisano has caught herself wondering which container carries her latest order.

“With the switch to online shopping, especially in recent years, we did see a huge jump in our intermodal traffic over the past two years now,” Ms. Oppedisano said. “A lot more people are shopping online now, taking advantage of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. We are seeing it on the rail.”

UPS freight doubles from Thanksgiving to Christmas Day, she said, the industry’s peak season. During those months, the yard is open 24/7.

“The markets and malls die down, so we get leaned on a lot more to ship this freight,” she said.

A more efficient yard

Inside a small office at the terminal, a team of CSX employees called gate clerks with headsets were pinned to their desktops controlling the flow of truck traffic through the yard.

Cameras record images of the truck’s license plate and details about the container, as the clerks scrutinize the images and confirm information through databases and registries. Waiting outside at the gate, the truckers can scan their smartphones with their personal information.

CSX has been using technology to speed things up at the yard. Lines of trucks no longer have to queue up to get into terminal; now they get inside in a minute or less.

“We remember the days where you had somebody that literally checked each truck in with a clipboard,” Ms. Oppedisano said. “That’s all been automated. All of our gate clerks are inside. The cameras replaced the need for people.”

But it’s not just advances in technology that have benefited the terminal. Train speed and efficiency have increased in the New England market because of a method of shipping known as double-stacking, where containers are stacked two high on rail cars.

While double-stack transport has been around since the 1980s, CSX did not start getting clearances for its terminals until 2010. The Worcester terminal in 2013 opened a double-stack route on the CSX rail line that runs over the New York state line. The company had to increase vertical clearances at more than 30 locations between Worcester and New York.

“Before that, every double-stacked train that was headed for the New England market had to stop in Syracuse, and you had to take one container off each rail car,” said Maurice O’Connell, CSX’s vice president for government affairs. “That added probably 18 hours onto the total commute, and ultimately made us less competitive with trucking.”

Pushing west

However, Mr. O’Connell worries that the state’s East-West rail plan for passenger service from Boston to Springfield could hinder some of the progress CSX has made in improving operations at its terminal here.

In agreeing to close its Boston yard, Mr. O’Connell said, CSX was under the impression that, with the state focused on commuter rail service from Worcester to Boston, it would not have to worry about more passenger trains west of Worcester.

In June, MassDOT began accepting requests for proposals to conduct an 18-month study on the Boston-Springfield link. The study will look at high-speed and traditional rail service between Boston and Springfield – or as far west as Pittsfield and Palmer – including costs, speed, infrastructure and ridership.

CSX is one of the stakeholders in the study, as the service would require use of its line.

“That could create delays for us that could affect how well this terminal operates,” Mr. O’Connell said.

Mr. O’Connell said CSX has already voiced its concerns with the state.

“I think if you’re going to look at Worcester, and all of the efficiency gains we’ve had here over the last six to seven years … the concern is the push for service west of Worcester,” he said. “If you look at everything in its totality here, I think that would have the biggest effect on how well we do here in Worcester, and how well we can serve the New England market.”