CSX Says Interchange Is Moving Again After a Technology Outage

Published: October 30, 2026

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — CSX said Thursday, October 29, that core functions had returned to many of its most critical railroad applications and that it was interchanging freight with other Class I railroads again. The outage began Tuesday morning, October 27. Spokesman Austin Staton said the railroad would keep watching the restored systems and would keep bringing the rest back online.

CSX freight on the Rabbit River Trestle at Hamilton MI in 2021

CSX road slug #2349 and GP38-2 #2502 works a short freight over the Rabbit River Trestle in Hamilton, Michigan on June 1, 2021. Rick Burn photo.

What stayed up, and what stopped

Train dispatching stayed up. Positive train control stayed up. Most of the other systems that run the railroad did not. Trains reported that yard inventory, crew calling, train bulletins, and work orders were among the systems that went down. The Blade in Toledo reported that crew management, shipment tracking, and billing were down, and that the outage blocked the paperwork that assigns crews, the documents that give a train authority to move, and the waybills for freight.

On Wednesday, Staton wrote to Trains: “Our security team has confirmed that this was not a cyberattack and that there has been no associated data breach.” He said technology teams were bringing systems back on a rolling basis, and that not every function was restored. Crew calling still took a lot of manual work, and that slower calling slowed the railroad. Because CSX could not exchange data with the other Class I railroads, it could not complete interchange with them. In Toledo, that included the railroad that switches the Stellantis assembly complex. Staton told The Blade that systems belonging to other railroads and to CSX customers were outside the failure. CSX has not identified a cause.

Thursday’s report

By Thursday afternoon, Staton told The Blade that core functionality had returned to many of the most critical applications. Interchange with other railroads was moving again. So were the documents for truck deliveries at intermodal terminals, including the terminal at North Baltimore, Ohio. He told Trains that some intermittent technical issues might continue while restoration went on, and that CSX was watching system performance. Amtrak trains that use CSX trackage ran on their normal pattern through the outage, Trains reported.

What the sensors counted

The counts below are RailState’s, from trackside sensors, as the firm gave them to Trains on Thursday morning. They are not a CSX tally. RailState said CSX freight traffic fell 46 percent against its 30-day average for 29 hours, and that the count was back at normal. From midnight to 8 a.m. Thursday, the sensors counted 162 freight trains, against a typical 138. On that same morning, RailState put BNSF-to-CSX volume at 141 percent above normal, Union Pacific-CSX volume at 98 percent of normal, and CPKC-CSX volume at 63 percent of normal. Those percentages are the interchange backlog clearing, railroad by railroad, on RailState’s sensors.

Sources

Trains, October 28, 2026, Bill Stephens. Austin Staton’s email: the outage began October 27; the security team confirmed it was not a cyberattack and that there was no data breach; systems were returning on a rolling basis; not all functions were restored; crew calling still required significant manual work. Dispatching and positive train control were unaffected. CSX could not exchange data with other Class I railroads, and interchange stopped.
Trains, October 29, 2026, Bill Stephens. Core functions had returned to many critical applications. CSX was interchanging with other Class I railroads again. Yard inventory, crew calling, train bulletins, and work orders had been among the systems down. Staton: intermittent technical issues might continue. Amtrak trains on CSX trackage operated normally. RailState: traffic fell 46 percent against the 30-day average for 29 hours and was back at normal; midnight to 8 a.m., 162 freight trains against a typical 138; BNSF-to-CSX volume 141 percent above normal, Union Pacific-CSX at 98 percent, CPKC-CSX at 63 percent.
The Blade, Toledo, October 28, 2026, David Patch. Crew management, shipment tracking, and billing were down. CSX could not exchange cars with the railroad that switches the Stellantis Toledo Assembly Complex. Other railroads’ systems and customers’ systems were unaffected. The outage blocked crew assignment, train-authority documents, and waybills.
The Blade, Toledo, October 29, 2026. Interchange restored. Documents for truck deliveries at intermodal terminals, including North Baltimore, Ohio, restored. Austin Staton: core functionality had returned to many of the most critical railroad applications, and CSX would monitor the restored systems while bringing others online.

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CSX Says Interchange Is Moving Again After a Technology Outage

What stayed up, and what stopped

Thursday’s report

What the sensors counted

Related reading on American-Rails.com

Sources