Norfolk Southern Cuts Jobs in Ohio

Norfolk Southern last week idled most operations at a Columbus, Ohio facility and will lay off 86 workers there in July.

NS will pay the employees at the Buckeye Yard on the west side of Columbus until July 3. The positions will be eliminated after that, according to a report filed with the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. The company did not say in the filing how many workers will remain.

The Norfolk, Va.-based company operates at Buckeye Yard along with Jacksonville, Fla.-based CSX, which employs approximately 60 workers there.

The move comes amid a months-long decline in railroad business after NS opened a $67 million intermodal facility just last year near Rickenbacker International Airport. NS profit fell 39 percent in the first quarter of 2009 to $177 million as revenue dropped 22 percent to $1.9 billion.

Norfolk Southern employs about 30,000 nationwide. The company last year earned $1.72 billion on $10.7 billion in revenue.

Contact Thomas L. Gallagher at tgallagher@joc.com .