Finger Lakes Railway

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Finger Lakes Railway
legal form Corporation
founding 1994
Seat Geneva , New York ,United StatesUnited States
management Mike Smith (President)
Branch Rail transport
Website www.fingerlakesrail.com

The Finger Lakes Railway ( AAR reporting as mark: FGLK) is an American class 3 - railway company in the Finger Lakes region of the US state of New York . The company owns railway lines with a total length of 269 km and operates rail freight transport on them .

history

Finger Lakes Railway President Mike Smith, business partner Bob Mortenson, Farmrail Corporation (FMRC), and Genesee and Wyoming (GWI) founded the Finger Lakes Railway in 1994 when Conrail wanted to part ways with rail lines in northwest New York. On July 22, 1995, the new company took over infrastructure and customer base in the Geneva Cluster from Conrail after negotiations with Conrail had been completed in 1994 and permits had been applied for. At the time of takeover, fewer than 5,600 freight wagons were being transported there annually.

While Conrail paid 1.3 million US dollars in property tax for the railway lines in 1994 , but only generated around 1.5 million dollars in sales there, the Finger Lakes Railway agreed a payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) with the six affected counties Onondaga , Cayuga , Seneca , Ontario , Schuyler and Yates . As part of this agreement, the six counties acquired the entire rail infrastructure of the Finger Lakes Railway, but immediately and exclusively leased it back to the railway company. In 2016, the railway company and the counties jointly submitted applications to change the ownership structure: The routes are to be acquired by the Finger Lakes Railway, rented to the counties and leased back by the railway company.

The PILOT, with a fixed component and a variable component linked to gross sales, initially reduced the property tax burden to around half of the Conrail volume. The turnover of the Finger Lakes Railway increased significantly in the following years. In 2008 more than 18,000 freight wagons were transported on the entire network. The user base grew between 1995 and 2012 from 24 to 82 and by 2015 to 90 regular freight customers. In 2012 the company had 54 employees.

In 2007, the Finger Lakes Railway acquired 81% of the shares in the neighboring Ontario Central Railroad (ONCT), which operates a 21 km (13 mile) line from Shortsville to Victor in the freight traffic and which is still legally an independent company.

Infrastructure

Route network of the Finger Lakes Railway and subsequent connections of other railway companies

The main route of the Finger Lakes Railway runs 122 km (76 miles) from Solvay near Syracuse via Auburn , Cayuga , Seneca Falls , Geneva and Shortsville to Canandaigua . The connection was part of the New York Central Railroad network from the middle of the 19th century and went with this to Penn Central in 1969 , before the infrastructure was taken over by Conrail in 1976 after Penn Central went bankrupt. The Finger Lakes Railway took over the route on July 22, 1995 from Conrail.

In Solvay and Syracuse, the Finger Lakes Railway exchanges freight wagons with the railway companies CSX Transportation and New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway , for which trackage rights were granted to CSX infrastructure in the greater Syracuse area. In Geneva the wagons are exchanged with the Norfolk Southern Railway . The Ontario Central Railroad begins in Shortsville.

In addition to the main connection, the Finger Lakes Railway operates two branches. From Geneva a route heads south on the east side of Seneca Lake until 2000 closed ammunition depot Seneca Army Depot of the United States Army . The extensive track systems in the former depot are used to park up to 1,500 temporarily unneeded freight cars from other railway companies. The route is a section of the former main line Jersey City - Buffalo of the Lehigh Valley Railroad , which was also combined in Conrail in 1976.

The second Finger Lakes Railway branch line runs west and south-west of Seneca Lake from Penn Yan via the hamlet of Himrod in Dundee to Watkins Glen . It was once operated by the Pennsylvania Railroad and reached the Finger Lakes Railway via Penn Central and Conrail. In Himrod there is a connection to the Norfolk Southern railway line Corning -Geneva- Lyons ( Corning Secondary ). In order to reach the route that is not connected to the rest of the network, the Finger Lakes Railway has trackage rights between Geneva and Himrod.

traffic

Finger Lakes Railway EMD GP9

The freight transport of the Finger Lakes Railway mainly comprises the transport of salt, steel products and scrap, paper, building materials and agricultural products. Besides sidings their own loading tracks (are team tracks ) operated and offered the secondment of temporarily idle car on the tracks of the Finger Lakes Railway. 19 diesel locomotives are available for transportation, including eleven GE B23-7 , two EMD GP9 , two EMD SD38-2 and one EMD GP40 . Several of the locomotives have a paint scheme based on the color scheme of the New York Central Railroad.

Between 2001 and 2013 the railway company also offered rail passenger transport as a tourist / museum railway under the name The Finger Lakes Scenic Railway . Since then, special trips have been offered sporadically with cooperation partners.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Finger Lakes Railway Contact List. Retrieved October 24, 2018 .
  2. ^ A b c d David L. Shaw: Business of the week: Finger Lakes Railway. Finger Lakes Times ( Community Media Group daily newspaper ), August 2, 2012, accessed October 24, 2018 (page is not accessible via European Internet service providers with reference to GDPR ).
  3. ^ Finger Lakes Railway Corp. Acquisition and Operation Exemption - Consolidated Rail Corporation. Interstate Commerce Commission , October 24, 1994, accessed October 24, 2018 .
  4. ^ A b Finger Lakes Railway: About. Finger Lakes Railway, 2009, archived from the original ; accessed on October 24, 2018 .
  5. ^ Finger Lakes Railway Corp: Sublease and operation exemption. (PDF) Surface Transportation Board , July 14, 2016, accessed on October 24, 2018 : “The parties state that this PILOT arrangement dates back to 1994 when FGLK acquired the rail lines from Consolidated Rail Corporation (Conrail) [...] [ F] ollowing that acquisition, title to the rail lines was immediately transferred to the Agencies [der Countys] and then leased back to FGLK, in order to facilitate the PILOT payment arrangement. "
  6. ^ Finger Lakes Railway Corp.-Acquisition and Operation Exemption-Seneca County Industrial Development Agency. Federal Register , April 29, 2016, accessed on October 24, 2018 : “FGLK states that to extend and restructure the PILOT arrangement, the Agency will first transfer title to the rail lines to FGLK. This notice relates to that transaction. Then the Agency will lease the rail lines from FGLK. Lastly, FGLK will sublease the rail lines back from the Agency to continue operations over them. "
  7. ^ Finger Lakes Railway Corp.-Acquisition and Operation Exemption-Cayuga County Industrial Development Agency, Onondaga County Industrial Development Agency, Ontario County Industrial Development Agency, Schuyler County Industrial Development Agency, and Yates County Industrial Development Agency. Federal Register, March 31, 2016, accessed October 24, 2018 .
  8. ^ Finger Lakes Railway: About Us. Finger Lakes Railway, 2015, accessed on October 24, 2018 : "Their current customer base has grown to 90 rail customers."
  9. ^ Finger Lakes Railway to acquire control of Ontario Central Railroad. Progressive Railroading-Magazine, August 10, 2007, accessed October 24, 2018 .
  10. ↑ Finger Lakes Railway Corporation-Trackage Rights Exemption-CSX Transportation, Inc. Surface Transportation Board, February 8, 2005, accessed October 24, 2018 .
  11. ↑ Freight Service. Finger Lakes Railway: Freight Service, 2015, accessed October 24, 2018 .