By Railfan & Railroad Staff

The remains of Hurricane Helene, which made landfall on September 26 in Florida and has since killed more than 90 people across the southeastern United States, has wreaked havoc on CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern networks. 

Both Class I railroads were warning customers to expect significant delays while the companies asses the damage and prepared for what in some areas could be a lengthy rebuilding effort. 

Perhaps the worst damage occurred on CSX’s Blue Ridge Subdivision, formally the Clinchfield Railroad. While the section between Spartanburg and Marion, S.C., was expected to be opened Sunday night, a “long-term outage” was expected along other sections of the route, according to a CSX service advisory. As of Sunday, officials were still trying to access some areas to assess the damage, so a complete picture of the situation was hard to come by. Unconfirmed reports online suggested that miles of track had been washed away. 

On NS, officials said Sunday its engineering team had made “significant progress” in clearing thousands of downed trees across the network and was working closely with power companies to address downed power lines. Customers with shipments moving through the region could expect delays of 72 hours.