Jacksonville-based CSX considers 700 more layoffs

Jacksonville, FL — Jacksonville-based CSX has already cut 2,300 employees this year, and another 700 could come before 2017 is done.

After reporting their most recent financial results, CSX President and CEO Hunter Harrison talked about what he believed to be a "hell of a quarter". This is coming as CSX looks at changing how the railroad operates, which the company says leads to "greater operational efficiencies".

Among those changes, Harrison says they could have a total of 3,000 employees cut by the end of this year, which is about 700 more than where they stand now. WOKV told you back in March that 500 of the employees who were laid off were from Jacksonville.

There’s no timeline for the balance of these layoffs or details yet on whether Jacksonville would again be affected.

Additionally, he says they’ve removed about 900 locomotives from service, and could lose another hundred. They’ve brought 60,000 freight cars out of service, and also expect to go from 12 rail yards to around three.

“If we make the improvements that we’ve made, we’ll be rewarded. If we don’t, we won’t. And that’s the way it ought to be,” Harrison says.

He believes the biggest challenge facing the company right now is change- with his leadership position itself being new, and all the changes he is making hanging over the company and employees. He says it’s hard to gauge when this change will pay off, but he believes it will have strong returns in the future.