MUSCLE SHOALS, Ala. - An increase in rail traffic moving through the state has prompted Norfolk Southern Railway to call 61 Sheffield yard employees back to work, the Florence, Ala., Times Daily reports.
"In response to an increase in traffic and to improve the efficiency of our entire network, we put our Sheffield yard back into operations starting today," Norfolk Southern spokeswoman Susan Terpay said Monday.
The employees began returning at midnight.
A reduction in rail traffic led to the idling of the Sheffield yard in July.
Terpay said 41 employees were furloughed in March and another 30 were sent home in July.
"We looked at how our entire network works and it was the right decision to idle operations (in Sheffield) and move them to other cities," Terpay said.
Roughly four months later, workers are being called back.
Terpay said the furloughed employees were involved in a variety of jobs, including servicing trains, fueling engines, operating trains on the main line or in the yard or repairing equipment.
All but 10 employees were called back to work.
Norfolk Southern's Sheffield yard, which is actually in Muscle Shoals, is a facility where individual rail cars from one train are separated and joined with other trains bound for different destinations.
Humping operations were shifted to Norfolk Southern hump yards in Birmingham and Chattanooga.
Some employees remained at the yard during the furloughs. They were involved primarily in maintenance operations, Terpay said.
Terpay said the railroad uses the term "furlough" because employees could be called back to work as business increases.
The increased rail traffic could be handled in Birmingham and Chattanooga, but Terpay said it was more efficient to call employees back to work and resume humping operations in the Sheffield yard.
Terpay said a wide variety of products come through the Shoals, including coal, wood chips, chemicals and intermodal containers hauling such products as washing machines, electronics, food, toys and "anything you can imagine."
About 20 trains pass through the Sheffield yard every day, Terpay said, adding that involves 800-900 cars every day.
(This item appeared Nov. 17, 2009, in the Times Daily.)
