FOUR Service Groups are to take over responsibility for commercial and operating functions at CSX Transportation under a major reorganisation announced by newly-appointed President Ronald J Conway on August 11. Designed to ’promote customer focus and speed the decision-making process’, the groups will be focused on the railway’s principal product lines. New merchandise, coal and automobile units will join the existing intermodal group, in what Conway described as ’an important shift in how we do business.’ Each Service Group will be responsible for customer service, wagon management and billing, and each will have a senior operations manager as a link between commercial and operating functions.
The operations department is being reorganised into five regions, based in Albany (Northeast), Chicago (Western), Huntingdon (Central), Louisville (Midwest) and Jacksonville (Southern). Each region will manage safety, rules, customer development, finances and mechanical engineering for a number of service lanes. A System Transportation Office at CSX headquarters will be responsible for central functions including crew rostering, dispatching and locomotive management.
