CSX reopens Howard Street Tunnel, completes restoration of Blue Ridge Subdivision

CSX announced today it has reopened the Howard Street Tunnel in Baltimore after completing a $450 million expansion project ahead of schedule. 

The infrastructure project, designed to modernize freight-rail transportation along the East Coast, marks a milestone in the decades of effort by state, federal, and private partners to deliver a long-sought boost to Maryland’s economy and the nation’s supply chain, CSX officials said in a press release.

Originally built from 1890-95, the Howard Street Tunnel has been a vital artery in America’s transportation network for more than 125 years. With the tunnel project completed, and once additional clearance projects are complete in early 2026, a key Interstate-95 corridor bottleneck will be cleared, and double-stacked intermodal trains will move through Baltimore, according to CSX.  Double-stacking is a more cost-effective way to transport freight by rail compared to trucks.

The project was delivered through a partnership between CSX, the state of Maryland, the Federal Railroad Administration and the U.S. Department of Transportation. It's anticipated the expanded tunnel will lead to increased business at the Port of Baltimore by 160,000 containers annually.

For a peek at the extension project, read this March 2025 article in RailPrime. 

Meanwhile, CSX yesterday announced that it has reopened its Blue Ridge Subdivision in North Carolina and Tennessee to freight-rail traffic after spending nearly a year rebuilding 60 miles of track damaged or destroyed by Hurricane Helene.

The vital corridor, which was severely damaged by flooding during and after the hurricane, is open to revenue service, CSX officials posted on social media.

To continue serving customers during reconstruction, train traffic was rerouted around the out-of-service track. The restoration project involved retrieving track material from the Nolichucky River and rebuilding the rail bed, bridges and culverts, according to the website CSX set up to report the recovery's progress. 

Hurricane Helene, a Category 4 storm, made landfall Sept. 26, 2024, in the Big Bend region of Florida, reaching wind speeds of 140 mph. It moved north through Georgia and reached into eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina early on Sept. 27, bringing historic rain that spurred flash-flooding and landslides that wiped out entire downtowns and neighborhoods.