Ithaca Central Railroad

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Ithaca Central Railroad
legal form Limited Liability Company
founding 2018
Seat Ithaca , New York ,United StatesUnited States
Branch Rail transport
Website https://www.watcocompanies.com/services/rail/ithaca-central-railroad-ithr/

The Ithaca Central Railroad ( AAR reporting as mark: ITHR) is a Class-3 local railroad - railway company in the west of the State of New York and northern Pennsylvania . The company, which is part of the Watco Companies group, operates 78.5 km of rail freight on a route leased from the Norfolk Southern Railway .

history

In 2018, the Norfolk Southern Railway and Watco Companies agreed to rent the Ithaca Secondary , which combines the remaining sections of the former Lehigh Valley Railroad around Ithaca , by a Watco company. The change of operator was reported to the Surface Transportation Board on November 8, 2018 and approved by it on November 19, 2018. For this purpose, Watco founded a new subsidiary, Ithaca Central Railroad , which took over the infrastructure and operations from Norfolk Southern Railway on December 8, 2018.

Infrastructure

The 78.5 km (48.8 miles) long Ithaca Secondary, rented by the Ithaca Central Railroad, runs from Sayre in Bradford County to Lansing on the east shore of Cayuga Lake .

The southern section from Sayre via Van Etten to Ithaca was opened in 1871 by the Ithaca & Athens Railroad and taken over in 1875 together with the subsequent route from Ithaca to Geneva by the Geneva, Ithaca, and Sayre Railroad . The latter was in turn under the control of the Lehigh Valley Railroad from 1876, for which the route represented a component of their connection to Buffalo , which was gradually completed by 1892 . For goods traffic to and from Buffalo, a direct connection Van Etten – Geneva was opened in 1891 without major gradients, while the topographically more demanding connection via Ithaca was still used as the Ithaca Branch for long-distance passenger traffic.

The northern part of Ithaca to Lansing was opened as part of a connection to Auburn in 1872 by the Cayuga Lake Railroad Company . After changing its name in 1879, this railway company also joined the Lehigh Valley Railroad, which ran the route as the Auburn & Ithaca Branch .

The Lehigh Valley Railroad gave up the extension of the Auburn & Ithaca Branch beyond Lansing as well as the Ithaca – Geneva section of the Ithaca Branch shortly after the suspension of passenger traffic in 1948 and 1961 respectively. Van Etten – Geneva was closed in 1976, while the remaining parts were integrated into Conrail in the same year . As part of the division of Conrail, the Norfolk Southern Railway acquired their Ithaca Secondary in 1999.

traffic

At the time of the takeover, four freight transport customers were being served on the route, transporting salt, coal, plastic granulate and magnesium chloride. The largest shipper is a Cargill salt mine in Lansing. The Milliken / Cayuga coal-fired power plant in Lansing, on the other hand, only receives irregular freight and, according to plans by the state government, is to be shut down by 2020 or converted to another energy source.

When operations began, the Ithaca Central Railroad had two EMD SD40-2 diesel locomotives available to traction the trains, to which a third machine was added in January 2019. The car swap with the Norfolk Southern Railroad takes place in Sayre.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Watco Holdings, Inc. -Continuance in Control Exemption- Ithaca Central Railroad, LLC. November 23, 2018, accessed December 26, 2019 .
  2. ^ Ithaca Central Railroad, LLC -Lease and Operation Exemption- Norfolk Southern Railway Company. Federal Register, November 23, 2018, accessed January 7, 2019 .
  3. ^ A b Watco to create new short line in upstate New York. Trains Magazine , November 13, 2018, accessed December 26, 2019 (article available online only to magazine subscribers).
  4. ↑ a b Watco Launches Ithaca Central on Former Lehigh Valley Route. Railfan & Railroad Magazine, November 14, 2018, accessed December 26, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Hardy C. Lee: A History of Railroads in Tompkins County . Arcadia Publishing, 2008, ISBN 0-943690-49-4  ( formally incorrect ) , p. 23, 39 f . ( cornell.edu ).
  6. ↑ Hardy C. Lee: A History of Railroads in Tompkins County . Arcadia Publishing, 2008, ISBN 0-943690-49-4  ( formally incorrect ) , p. 28 ( cornell.edu ).
  7. ↑ Governor Cuomo Announces Proposed Regulations to Make New York Power Plants Coal-Free by 2020. Governor Andrew Cuomo Press Office, May 17, 2018, accessed December 26, 2019 .