Barely Alive?

The NYS&W to me seems a mere shadow of its former self, back when it was running Sea-Land double stacks as an independent railroad. After CSX and NS jointly bought it, the NYS&W seems to run one daily LD train to/from Binghamton. I can't help to wonder if the CSX/NS buyout was primarily to minimize a competitor serving the NJ/NYC and just keep the NYS&W active enough to avoid regulatory scrutiny.

The NYS&W bridge became redundant with CSX and NS splitting Conrail. That reduced it to a shortline handling it's own traffic. NS and CSX bought it out to placate Rich and prevent any objections to the Conrail takeover. CSX killed a sale of the Massena line to CN over STB wanting them to potentially allow CN to interchange with the NYS&W at Syracuse, which could have let CN send trains to the NYC market and cut out CSX entirely.

Interesting info about the Massena Line and scuttled sale. As more and more of NJ's industrial tracts get converted to housing, I don't see much of a future for the Suzy Q.

Dcell wrote: ↑Fri Sep 02, 2022 5:26 pm Interesting info about the Massena Line and scuttled sale. As more and more of NJ's industrial tracts get converted to housing, I don't see much of a future for the Suzy Q.

This is why you're a railfan and not a railroader. The NYS&W has been fine since the Conrail merger over 20 years ago. Just because you may find the operation boring or there aren't enough trains to chase, doesn't mean they are dying.