HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — Huntington has benefited from railroads for more than 145 years. But there have been many changes over the years, and more of them are happening now.
Today, CSX Transportation’s Huntington Division is in the process of disappearing, and with it 121 local jobs – including dispatchers, yardmasters and other contract and non-contract labor. Yardmaster positions alone will drop from 18 to three – leaving those officers only in Huntington, Logan and Russell, Kentucky.
“Some of those affected may have the option to transfer elsewhere or retire,” said Gary Sease, CSXT’s vice president of corporate communications.
The 60 employees in the company’s yard will not be affected, but rumors are circulating among the 400 workers at the Huntington Locomotive Shop that spare locomotive parts are no longer being stocked and that the company will decide in March whether to close the main shop…