Cumberland Dispatch

Both junctions of the CSX Baltimore to Cumberland rail line in Maryland, Cumberland and Baltimore, are continuing to reap benefits to recent investments and enhancements to both the line and facilities. CSX’s Director of State Affairs for Maryland and Delaware called this an “exciting time.”

“I’m really looking forward to seeing the Howard Street Tunnel project fulfill what the hopes have been for 50 years, in making the investment to increase the freight flows through the heart of our network through Baltimore” Hammock said, “And seeing the ripple effects of that through economic growth. The city of Cumberland is a big part of that.”

The Howard Street Tunnel project, focused in Baltimore, came online but with an expanded rail yard in Cumberland in 2025. The rail tunnel in Baltimore expanded by a foot and a half, Hammock said, allowing double-stack cars to pass to the port. The increase in rail traffic went from 300 cars a day in Cumberland to over 1,000.

“For the future, these efficiencies and improvements should stabilize current employment in Cumberland for many years to come,” wrote Jeffrey Barclay, Director of Allegany County Economic and Community Development, in response to an inquiry.

“We are currently assisting a new Allegany County business, Kingspan Roofing and Waterproofing, to put a rail spur in their 348,000 square foot building for the import of raw materials. Likewise Penn-Mar Recycling recently purchased a former Kelly-Springfield rail spur from Allegany County, to put the spur back into operation for recycling operations and local trans-loading opportunities.”

CSX in Cumberland experienced a severe contraction in 2017 and 2018 when it cut its workforce, which Barclay wrote “had significant negative impacts for the local economy.” But the tide started to turn back when investment followed.

The CSX expansion success has been the result of a private-public partnership of investment on all three levels of government. According to Hammock, before it was even completed, Mediterranean Shipping Company announced the creation of a $2 billion facility at Tradepoint Atlantic in Baltimore, in large part due to the infrastructure investments. 

“When you talk about the $500 million joint investment from federal, state and private parties, to induce that kind of economic development before the project was even completed is significant,” he said.

Rail has a storied history in the Cumberland region. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) was the oldest railroad in the United States, founded in Baltimore 200 years-ago next year, and ran through the city. Today, freight travels from Baltimore to points west, like Chicago, St. Louis and Memphis. But coal from West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Kentucky, and other goods from point to the west, also flow toward the Eastern Seaboard through Cumberland.

“The freight coming in from the West–a lot of it pinches through from a number of places of origin,” Hammock said. “Trains will be reclassified, broken apart, and built to go to destinations up and down the East Coast.”

He said the capacity exists for the line and its accompanying business to grow, and both CSX and area leadership seem bullish on making that happen.

“It goes without saying that there are redevelopment opportunities at the former Rolling Mill site in Cumberland, and the Luke Paper Mill site in Luke, Maryland,” Barclay wrote. “We truly value our relationship with CSx now and in the future. There are still plenty of things for us to discuss in Allegany County and Cumberland.”

Like the horizons that are eclipsed every day in Cumberland by its mountains, with the rising and setting of the sun, rail here only seems to be limited by the bright imagination of its people. Cumberland remains a critical link in the CSX network, and the entire national rail system.

“If you think about that network as arteries in your body, these are the critical organs in your network, to help keep the network a fluid system and efficient,” Hammock said. “Having rail yards like Cumberland allows us to keep the system moving fluidly and also service our customers faster.”

“I think it’s really exciting times. Some of these projects have been discussed for close to 50 years. To see that come online, what that means for freight volumes–it’s exciting times.”