Nearly 90 NC workers to be laid off, including in Charlotte, by transport company
A Missouri company that transports railroad crew members will lay off 87 workers and close several offices across North Carolina due to a cancelled contract with a major freight operator.
Railcrew Xpress is closing eight offices throughout the state by Feb. 27, including its Charlotte location on S. Ramsey Street in northwest Charlotte, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification report filed on Dec. 22. With the closure, 18 employees will be laid off.
In addition to the Charlotte site, locations in Bethel, Bostic, Fayetteville, Hamlet, Leland, Raleigh and Rocky Mount will also close. Rocky Mount and Hamlet, which are both east of Charlotte, will see larger layoffs with 27 and 25 people, respectively. Other sites are in the single digits.
The layoffs and closures are due to a canceled contract with CSX, one of the largest transcontinental freight operators in the U.S.
It’s unclear why the contract was canceled. Railcrew Xpress did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
But the canceled contract didn’t only affect workers in North Carolina. Railcrew Xpress also lost the contract in Georgia and Florida, leading to office closures and layoffs of 55 and 82 people, respectively. In total, 224 will lose their jobs in the three states.
Those contracts also end on Feb. 27.
About Railcrew Xpress
Founded in 2005, Railcrew Xpress drives train engineers, conductors and other workers to and from freight trains. Since railway infrastructure is limited, driving employees to their station is more efficient, according to the company’s website.
The transporter operates in 25 states and employed over 2,000 people, according to its website.
This is the second time a contract cancellation has led to layoffs for Railcrew Xpress. In 2020, after Amazon canceled its contract with Railcrew Xpress, over 600 drivers were laid off.
