NS begins using WNY&P trackage rights

http://www.utu.org/worksite/detail_news ... leID=12683

From the UTU News Site:

HORNELL, N.Y. -- Few took notice Tuesday afternoon (March 16) at the height of the snowstorm, but a freight train took a left turn at West Street and headed west, according to this report by Andy Thompson published by the Hornell Evening Tribune.
The move, at around 3:30 p.m., marked the first revenue run of a Norfolk Southern (NS) train over the fledgling Western New York & Pennsylvania.

Norfolk Southern in February filed documents with the federal Surface Transportation Board notifying it that trackage rights had been purchased from the WNY&P. The intent, although NS officials would not say so at the time, was to shave 65 miles off its present route structure in order to move Pennsylvania coal to northeast power plants.

Also key to the trackage rights purchase is NS' need to have a secure secondary route should its Southern Tier Line to Buffalo fail, driven by concerns over the aging Portage bridge over the Genesee River.

It's a good thing the agreement was in place; Tuesday morning's 11-car derailment near Burns had the Southern Tier Line shut down, pushing NS traffic over the WNY&P's Southern Tier Extension.

"We're going to get busy all of the sudden," WNY&P President William Burt said Tuesday. Burt, who has overseen resurrection of a rail line given up for dead by Conrail, tracked movement of the train from Hornell through Allegany County to its end in Meadville, Pa.

"The coal trains were going to start today," Burt said. Empty coal (cars) are in Corning ready to move, and a loaded train is coming toward Meadville" to move east, he said.

WNY&P and line owner Southern Tier Rail Authority invested millions in the past three years upgrading the line, doing so with a mixture of public and private funding. WNY&P owns outright the portion of the line from Corry, Pa., to Meadville, while Southern Tier Rail Authority holds title to the rest through a sale-leaseback agreement with NS. That in turn has been subleased to WNY&P as part of what will be a 30-year agreement.

Not counting freight trains operated by NS, the WNY&P now moves about 2,200 cars a year annually, up from the 125 cars it moved three years ago. Revenue from its trackage rights agreement with NS is considered key to continued development as WNY&P works to increase traffic in Allegany County and Hornell.

(The preceding report by Andy Thompson was published by the Hornell Evening Tribune Thursday, March 18, 2004.)

March 18, 2004

I'm glad to see that the NS already started to use their trackage rights. Cool stuff!

NS through Corry?! I sure wish I could have seen that town back when it was a rail center.

Where does the trackage head between Corry and Meadville?

MC

MetalCowboy wrote: Where does the trackage head between Corry and Meadville?
MC

I believe that this is the former Erie route that runs from Corry -> Union City -> Cambridge Springs -> then follows Route 6/19 into Meadville.

This map shows the track layout from 1995.

Which is from this site with good info.