The Southern Ontario Railway is a shortline railroad in the province of Ontario

Ontario

Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

. It operates 69 miles (111 km) of track from Brantford

Brantford, Ontario

Brantford is a city located on the Grand River in Southern Ontario, Canada. While geographically surrounded by the County of Brant, the city is politically independent...

 to Nanticoke, Ontario

Nanticoke, Ontario

Nanticoke is an unincorporated community and former city located on the western border of Haldimand County, Ontario, Canada. It is southeast of Simcoe in neighbouring Norfolk County and south of Brantford...

. The railroad began operations in 1998, and was acquired by RailAmerica

RailAmerica

RailAmerica, Inc., based in Jacksonville, Florida, is a holding company of a number of short-line railroads and regional railroads in the United States and Canada....

 two years later. It has interchanges with the Canadian National Railway

Canadian National Railway

The Canadian National Railway Company is a Canadian Class I railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec. CN's slogan is "North America's Railroad"....

 at Hamilton

Hamilton, Ontario

Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Conceived by George Hamilton when he purchased the Durand farm shortly after the War of 1812, Hamilton has become the centre of a densely populated and industrialized region at the west end of Lake Ontario known as the Golden Horseshoe...

 via trackage rights

Trackage rights

Trackage rights , running rights or running powers is an agreement whereby a railway company has the right to run its trains on tracks owned by another railway company....

, Brantford and Paris

Paris, Ontario

Paris, Ontario is a community on the Grand River in Ontario, Canada. The town was established in 1850. In 1999, its town government was amalgamated into that of the County of Brant, Ontario, thus ending about 149 years as a separate incorporated municipality.-History:The town was first settled in...

, and interchanges with the Canadian Pacific Railway

Canadian Pacific Railway

The Canadian Pacific Railway , formerly also known as CP Rail between 1968 and 1996, is a historic Canadian Class I railway founded in 1881 and now operated by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001...

at Hamilton.

The railroad's traffic comes mainly from steel, agricultural products, petroleum products, and chemicals. The SOR hauled around 44,000 carloads in 2008.