Laid off from CSX.

What CSX layoffs have meant for employees

A transfer after a closure has kept some CSX shop workers on the payroll without keeping them in one place. Roy Parker, one of 113 workers affected when the Russell locomotive shop closed in 2019, told WSAZ he had moved there after the Corbin closures, and the station reported that he and almost 20 others from Corbin spent their weeks in Russell and drove six hours home every weekend. Russell then closed under him too, after what CSX called three years of declining work at the shop. If CSX offers a transfer to another shop after a closure, the commute or a relocation is worth weighing against how steady that shop's work has been.

For track workers, the 2026 furloughs come with a decision that can outlast them. The union's Feb. 7 trifold says the February 7, 1965 agreement protects eligible workers' wages and health coverage when they're furloughed involuntarily, and that members with 10 calendar years of seniority in their department on their railroad, who worked at least half-time of the averaged available workdays in each month of the three years before that anniversary, may be eligible for protected status. It also says placing yourself on furlough, or refusing a recall while on involuntary furlough, can forfeit or suspend that status, and that lost status can't be restored. That makes a voluntary furlough a different thing from an involuntary one for anyone with protected status, which is why BMWED told its CSX members in a September 17 notice to reach their system federation before electing one. If you might hold protected status, what volunteering could cost you is worth weighing carefully. Separately, the Railroad Retirement Board booklet says unemployment benefits can sometimes be paid to a worker under a job protection plan that guarantees work or wages each month, but anyone paid a protective allowance and benefits for the same period has to refund some or all of the benefits.

CSX has offered train crews something short of a furlough before. In the 2020 downturn, by the account in CSX's 2021 proxy statement, voluntary leaves of absence and temporary part-time assignments let conductors and engineers who might otherwise have been furloughed keep their health and welfare benefits and stay available for prompt recall. If you're a conductor or engineer offered a leave or part-time work in place of a furlough, what each keeps for you, from health coverage to how fast you'd be back at work, is worth comparing, and the RRB's booklet counts any day you're paid as a day with no unemployment benefits.

The package offered in the 2017 management cuts went well beyond salary. The letter News4Jax obtained that February paired up to a year's salary with health benefits on the same timeline, a shot at a prorated bonus and extra years on the pension plan, and it limited the offer to employees 52 or older with at least eight years of service. If you're a manager offered a package, the bonus and pension pieces are worth setting beside the cash, since that letter counted them as part of the same deal.

Unemployment for a CSX railroader runs through the Railroad Retirement Board, the federal agency that administers the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act, on claims filed every two weeks. The application can go in on myRRB or by mail on Form UI-1, and the board's booklet puts a 30-day limit on it, counted from the day you become unemployed or the first day you want benefits for, with late filing putting benefits at risk. A separation allowance from CSX holds those benefits off for as long as it would have taken to earn the allowance, by the booklet's rule, so if CSX's terms for you include one, RRB payments start later than they otherwise would.

A sourced history of CSX layoffs

• September 2026, track maintenance abolishments and furloughs

  CSX notified the BMWED union that it would abolish 165 track maintenance positions permanently and project as many as 1,062 furloughs, about 900 of them union members on system gangs that weren't expected to restart until late February, the union said in a September 11 post.

• January 2026, management cuts and conductor furloughs

  CSX eliminated 166 management positions, about 5% of its managers, with what it told the Jax Daily Record were competitive severance packages. Another 193 conductors were furloughed and 157 left unassigned, according to sources Trains cited.

• Second quarter 2020, pandemic furloughs

  CSX furloughed about 2,000 employees after what its 2021 proxy statement calls the largest quarterly volume declines in its history, and brought about 1,700 back over the second and third quarters.

• April 2019, Russell, Kentucky, locomotive shop closure

  CSX closed its Russell Locomotive Shop, eliminating 113 positions, and a spokesperson told WSAZ that furloughed union employees would be covered by their contracts and get at least 60 days of regular pay and benefits.

• February 2017, 1,000 management job cuts announced

  CSX announced it would lay off 1,000 management employees, the majority in its Jacksonville corporate office and subsidiaries, and News4Jax reported the company's word that those let go in the involuntary separation program would receive separation benefits.

• October 2015, Corbin, Kentucky, shop closures announced

  CSX announced it would close its Corbin shops, citing the region's falling coal traffic, and said in a release News4Jax reported that each of the roughly 180 affected employees would receive at least 60 days' pay and benefits. Many furloughed workers could qualify for jobs elsewhere on the network.

What to do if you're laid off from CSX

• File for unemployment in the state where you worked. Benefits run from your filing date, and severance usually doesn't block you. CSX's biggest hubs: Florida, Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia. Somewhere else? Every state is here.
• Apply for financial and hardship assistance. Unemployment supplements income, but food benefits, health coverage and utility help are often available as well. Here's some of what CSX's hub states run: Florida, Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia, and every other state is here.
• Mind the health insurance window. Losing coverage opens a 60-day special enrollment period, and an ACA plan usually beats unsubsidized COBRA. Compare your options before the employer coverage lapses, and read how the COBRA clocks run if you are weighing it seriously.
• Get your real runway number. Severance plus savings divided by reality. The calculator takes five minutes.
• Know which clocks are already running. Severance review windows, COBRA election, visa grace periods, and 401(k) rollovers all run on federal deadlines that started at termination. All five deadlines are here.