Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, October 16, 1993                   TAG: 9310160069
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

RAIL RIVALS SHARE NS, CSX SEEK TO SPLIT WORK

Norfolk Southern Railway Co. and CSX Transportation Inc. have applied to the Interstate Commerce Commission to consolidate some operations and jointly use some rail lines between two South Carolina cities, Columbia and Charleston.

In some instances, CSX cars will be handled by NS trains and crews and in other instances NS cars will be handled by CSX trains and crews, according to the ICC decision accepting the application for consideration.

CSX says that its trains between the two cities can be more efficiently handled by NS, the ICC said. In turn, the CSX will handle NS cars between Newberry, S.C. and Spartanburg, S.C.

The consolidation would eliminate three CSX trains. The railroads, however, have not yet reached an agreement with the employees who would be affected.

No NS trains would be eliminated by the agreement.

The consolidation would not lessen competition between the two railroads, according to their application. Nor would the status of NS and CSX customers that are jointly served by the two railroads change.

Both railroads would benefit economically from the consolidation, the application says.

Norfolk Southern and CSX have had similar arrangements before on a smaller scale, said Bill Schafer, manager of corporate development for NS. Also, the two railroads are talking about similar cooperative arrangements in other states and NS has had similar ventures with other carriers, such as Conrail, he said.