HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — With coal’s steep decline creating major ripples in West Virginia’s economy, train giant CSX announced plans to shut down its administrative offices, a move Huntington Mayor Steve Williams called “devastating to the region.”
Earlier this month, Norfolk-Southern announced it would relocate rail operations out of the Pocahontas Division in Mercer County to Roanoke, Va. Both cases were the result of dwindling coal transports out of the Appalachian region.
More than 120 longtime workers at the CSX administrative offices will either lose their jobs or be asked to relocate to other operations across the country.
“They’re people who are from Huntington, they’re natives of Huntington they didn’t just move in here,” Williams said. “These jobs have been here forever. Huntington is a railroad town. Huntington was created because of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway, the forerunner of CSX.”
The company said it planned to keep its service facility in Huntington, though the mayor feared that plan could change as well. CSX officials reportedly lost $1.4 billion in coal revenue in the past four years.
Williams laid the blame squarely on the White House.
“This is only happening because of the over-regulation and downturn in energy prices,” he said. “I don’t think we have to be too analytical to see what was happening in 2008 and now what’s happening in 2016. That shows me the change in policy at the national level has had a drastic effect.”
While the loss of CSX was motivation to “double-down” on efforts to lure more diversified companies to come to Huntington in the future, Williams said the news was a body blow to his city.
“The administrative voice that would be in Huntington is going to be absent,” he said. “It’s tragic for Huntington, it’s devastating to the region, and I’m fearful it’s an indication of more things to come.”