Western New York and Pennsylvania Railroad
Encyclopedia
The Western New York and Pennsylvania Railroad is a short-line railroad that operates freight train
s in Western New York
and Northwest Pennsylvania, United States
. The company is controlled by the Livonia, Avon and Lakeville Railroad
, with which it does not connect. It started operations in 2001 on the Southern Tier Extension, a former Erie Railroad
line between Hornell and Corry, owned by the public Chautauqua, Cattaraugus, Allegany and Steuben Southern Tier Extension Railroad Authority (STERA). Through acquisitions and leases, the line was extended from Corry to Meadville in 2002 and to Oil City in 2006, and in 2007 the WNY&P leased and sub-leased portions of the north-south Buffalo Line
, a former Pennsylvania Railroad
line mostly built by a predecessor of the defunct Western New York and Pennsylvania Railway. The two lines cross at Olean.
just west of the crossing of its two main lines. The Southern Tier Extension heads east to the Norfolk Southern Railway
's (NS's) Southern Tier Line
at Hornell and west to NS at Meadville, with a branch continuing to the Oil City area. The WNY&P's segment of the Buffalo Line
stretches north to Machias, a junction with the Buffalo and Pittsburgh Railroad
(B&P), and south over Keating Summit to Driftwood, which the B&P and NS both serve. Other connections include the Canadian Pacific Railway
at Hornell, B&P at Salamanca and Corry, New York and Lake Erie Railroad
(out of service) at Waterboro, and Oil Creek and Titusville Lines at Rouseville.
Since 2001, when the WNY&P began operation of the Southern Tier Extension from Corry PA to Hornell NY per a sub-lease with Norfolk Southern, local service levels have increased from less than one to several trains per day. NS retains overhead trackage rights and operates daily coal
trains over the line from Southwestern Pennsylvania to Upstate New York
and New England
. WNY&P business on the Buffalo Line includes hauling coal from Emporium (north of Driftwood) to a power plant at Jamestown (west of Olean).
(A&GW) to Jamestown in 1860, Corry in 1861, Meadville in 1862, and into Ohio
in 1863, finally reaching Dayton in 1864. The same company opened a branch from Meadville via Franklin to Oil City by 1866. Except for a realignment east of Corry, built by the Columbus and Erie Railroad by 1908, the A&GW eventually became the main line of the Erie Railroad
to Chicago. It was retained by Conrail in 1976, though it ceased to be a primary route for through trains, and the portions between Corry and Jamestown and between Olean and Hornell were taken out of service in 1991.
The Interstate Commerce Commission
(ICC) authorized Conrail to abandon part of this line, which it called the Meadville Line, between Corry and Meadville in August 1994, effective at the end of the month. The on-line municipalities of Corry, Union City, Cambridge Springs, Saegertown, and Meadville filed an offer of financial assistance that month to purchase the line for its net liquidation value of $2.9 million, and the abandonment authority was rescinded. Through the newly-created Northwest Pennsylvania Rail Authority they acquired the property on October 31, 1995, after some delay, for operation by the Oil Creek and Titusville Lines (OCTL), and operations began soon after. But the courts ruled in August 1996 that the ICC had no authority to force the sale, since they had authorized abandonment again in April 1995, and so the line was to pass back to Conrail, who wanted to keep it from falling into the hands of a competitor. In the midst of talks between Conrail and the two companies that were buying its assets, CSX Transportation
and the Norfolk Southern Railway
, the authority reached an agreement with Conrail in June 1997, allowing it to keep the line.
Norfolk Southern (NS), successor to Conrail's lines in the immediate area, agreed in June 1998 to place the Corry-Hornell "Southern Tier Extension" back in service, in exchange for certain financial incentives. This June 1998 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was memorialized in the Surface Transportation Board's record of Decision in July 1998. The New York Legislature
then created the Chautauqua, Cattaraugus, Allegany, and Steuben Southern Tier Extension Railroad Authority (STERA) in June 2000 in order to acquire the New York portion of the line and lease it back to NS. This was done in February 2001, and on April 23, the newly-created WNY&P, a subsidiary of the Livonia, Avon and Lakeville Railroad
, sub-leased the line from Norfolk Southern and began operating the line. Except for a short segment near the Buffalo Line
crossing at Olean, which NS did not sub-lease to WNY&P (but for which Norfolk Southern did provide overhead trackage rights to WNY&P), the WNY&P sub-leased the line from Corry PA to Hornell NY from Norfolk Southern.
Looking to the west, the WNY&P acquired the Corry-Meadville line from the Northwest Pennsylvania Rail Authority in January 2002, for $1 and the cancellation of the authority's $1.9 million debt. The authority had borrowed the money in the 1990s from NORPA, then a subsidiary of the Delaware Otsego Corporation
, to pay for the acquisition in conjunction with $1 million from the state. (Delaware Otsego financed the purchase to preserve a possible connection between its subsidiary New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway
and CSX Transportation
in the case of a Norfolk Southern Railway
/Conrail merger.) The WNY&P bought NORPA in 2001, allowing it to cancel the debt. At the same time as it acquired the line, the WNY&P replaced OCTL as operator. Thanks to state and federal funding, the WNY&P began repairing the out-of-service parts of the line in August 2002, and by fall 2003 it had been sufficiently rehabilitated to allow full operations. In its agreement with WNY&P in which it sub-leased operating rights to WNY&P for the portion of the line from Corry PA to Hornell NY, NS retained overhead trackage rights for that portion of the line, allowing NS trains to enter or exit that portion of the Southern Tier Extension operated by the WNY&P at either Hornell (Southern Tier Line
), Olean (Buffalo Line
), Corry (Buffalo and Pittsburgh Railroad
trackage rights), and Meadville (Meadville Line). This provided a bypass around Buffalo for freight including Upstate New York
- and New England
-bound Monongahela
coal.
In December 2005, the WNY&P expanded further with the lease from NS of the ex-Erie Franklin Secondary and associated lines between Meadville and Rouseville, just north of Oil City. This connected the WNY&P directly to industries in the Franklin-Oil City area, and indirectly to Titusville via Oil Creek and Titusville Lines. By the end of 2006, NS decided to discontinue operations north of Driftwood, Pennsylvania
on the Buffalo Line
, a line that the Pennsylvania Railroad
had acquired through its control of the former Western New York and Pennsylvania Railway and Philadelphia and Erie Railroad
. The line north of Machias would be leased to the Buffalo and Pittsburgh Railroad
, which then had trackage rights, and the remainder between Machias and Driftwood was to become a WNY&P operation. STERA acquired the line between Machias and the state line in February 2007, appending this portion of the line to the arrangement specified in its June 1998 MOU with Norfolk Southern. STERA then leased the line between Machias and the state line back to Norfolk Southern, which in turn sub-leased it to WNY&P. Norfolk Southern leased the line from the state line to Driftwood PA directly to WNY&P. On August 4 the WNY&P took over operations between Machias and Driftwood. The sub-lease of the Machias to state line portion of the Buffalo line also included the sub-lease of the small portion of the Southern Tier Extension near the crossing at Olean (the "Olean Rail Yard"), and installed WNY&P as operator of a short branch to Farmers Valley, Pennsylvania
. The latter had been built, in part, by the Pittsburg, Shawmut and Northern Railroad
, and acquired by the Pennsylvania after that company ceased operations in 1947.
Freight train
A freight train or goods train is a group of freight cars or goods wagons hauled by one or more locomotives on a railway, ultimately transporting cargo between two points as part of the logistics chain...
s in Western New York
Western New York
Western New York is the westernmost region of the state of New York. It includes the cities of Buffalo, Rochester, Niagara Falls, the surrounding suburbs, as well as the outlying rural areas of the Great Lakes lowlands, the Genesee Valley, and the Southern Tier. Some historians, scholars and others...
and Northwest Pennsylvania, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The company is controlled by the Livonia, Avon and Lakeville Railroad
Livonia, Avon and Lakeville Railroad
The Livonia, Avon and Lakeville Railroad is a short line railroad that operates in Livingston County and Monroe County in New York, United States...
, with which it does not connect. It started operations in 2001 on the Southern Tier Extension, a former Erie Railroad
Erie Railroad
The Erie Railroad was a railroad that operated in New York State, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, originally connecting New York City with Lake Erie...
line between Hornell and Corry, owned by the public Chautauqua, Cattaraugus, Allegany and Steuben Southern Tier Extension Railroad Authority (STERA). Through acquisitions and leases, the line was extended from Corry to Meadville in 2002 and to Oil City in 2006, and in 2007 the WNY&P leased and sub-leased portions of the north-south Buffalo Line
Buffalo Line
The Buffalo Line is a railroad line owned and operated by the Norfolk Southern Railway in the U.S. states of New York and Pennsylvania. The line runs from Buffalo, New York southeast to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania along a former Pennsylvania Railroad line...
, a former Pennsylvania Railroad
Pennsylvania Railroad
The Pennsylvania Railroad was an American Class I railroad, founded in 1846. Commonly referred to as the "Pennsy", the PRR was headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania....
line mostly built by a predecessor of the defunct Western New York and Pennsylvania Railway. The two lines cross at Olean.
Operations
The WNY&P operates a system centered on Olean, where it operates the ex-Erie yardRail yard
A rail yard, or railroad yard, is a complex series of railroad tracks for storing, sorting, or loading/unloading, railroad cars and/or locomotives. Railroad yards have many tracks in parallel for keeping rolling stock stored off the mainline, so that they do not obstruct the flow of traffic....
just west of the crossing of its two main lines. The Southern Tier Extension heads east to the Norfolk Southern Railway
Norfolk Southern Railway
The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I railroad in the United States, owned by the Norfolk Southern Corporation. With headquarters in Norfolk, Virginia, the company operates 21,500 route miles in 22 eastern states, the District of Columbia and the province of Ontario, Canada...
's (NS's) Southern Tier Line
Southern Tier Line
The Southern Tier Line is a railroad line owned and operated by the Norfolk Southern Railway in the U.S. states of New York and Pennsylvania. The line runs from Suffern, New York northwest to Buffalo, New York mostly along a former Erie Railroad line. From Suffern to Sparrowbush along which...
at Hornell and west to NS at Meadville, with a branch continuing to the Oil City area. The WNY&P's segment of the Buffalo Line
Buffalo Line
The Buffalo Line is a railroad line owned and operated by the Norfolk Southern Railway in the U.S. states of New York and Pennsylvania. The line runs from Buffalo, New York southeast to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania along a former Pennsylvania Railroad line...
stretches north to Machias, a junction with the Buffalo and Pittsburgh Railroad
Buffalo and Pittsburgh Railroad
The Buffalo and Pittsburgh Railroad is a Class II railroad operating in New York and Pennsylvania.The BPRR is owned by Genesee and Wyoming Industries. Its main line runs between Buffalo, New York and Eidenau, Pennsylvania, north of Pittsburgh. Here, connections are made to the city center via the...
(B&P), and south over Keating Summit to Driftwood, which the B&P and NS both serve. Other connections include 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 Hornell, B&P at Salamanca and Corry, New York and Lake Erie Railroad
New York and Lake Erie Railroad
The New York & Lake Erie is a class III railroad operating in Western New York. The NYLE was formed in 1978 to operate a portion of former Erie trackage that Conrail no longer wanted. Today, the railroad operates between Gowanda to Conewango Valley, New York with a branch between Dayton, New York...
(out of service) at Waterboro, and Oil Creek and Titusville Lines at Rouseville.
Since 2001, when the WNY&P began operation of the Southern Tier Extension from Corry PA to Hornell NY per a sub-lease with Norfolk Southern, local service levels have increased from less than one to several trains per day. NS retains overhead trackage rights and operates daily coal
Coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
trains over the line from Southwestern Pennsylvania to Upstate New York
Upstate New York
Upstate New York is the region of the U.S. state of New York that is located north of the core of the New York metropolitan area.-Definition:There is no clear or official boundary between Upstate New York and Downstate New York...
and New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
. WNY&P business on the Buffalo Line includes hauling coal from Emporium (north of Driftwood) to a power plant at Jamestown (west of Olean).
History
The New York and Erie Railroad completed its line between Piermont and Dunkirk, New York via Hornell and Salamanca in 1851. The 1852 completion of the Hornell-Buffalo Buffalo and New York City Railroad turned the Hornell-Dunkirk line into a branch. A line extending west from Salamanca was completed by the Atlantic and Great Western RailroadAtlantic and Great Western Railroad
The Atlantic and Great Western Railroad began as three separate railroads: the Erie and New York City Railroad based in Jamestown, New York; the Meadville Railroad based in Meadville, Pennsylvania ; and the Franklin and Warren Railroad based in Franklin Mills, Ohio...
(A&GW) to Jamestown in 1860, Corry in 1861, Meadville in 1862, and into Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
in 1863, finally reaching Dayton in 1864. The same company opened a branch from Meadville via Franklin to Oil City by 1866. Except for a realignment east of Corry, built by the Columbus and Erie Railroad by 1908, the A&GW eventually became the main line of the Erie Railroad
Erie Railroad
The Erie Railroad was a railroad that operated in New York State, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, originally connecting New York City with Lake Erie...
to Chicago. It was retained by Conrail in 1976, though it ceased to be a primary route for through trains, and the portions between Corry and Jamestown and between Olean and Hornell were taken out of service in 1991.
The Interstate Commerce Commission
Interstate Commerce Commission
The Interstate Commerce Commission was a regulatory body in the United States created by the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. The agency's original purpose was to regulate railroads to ensure fair rates, to eliminate rate discrimination, and to regulate other aspects of common carriers, including...
(ICC) authorized Conrail to abandon part of this line, which it called the Meadville Line, between Corry and Meadville in August 1994, effective at the end of the month. The on-line municipalities of Corry, Union City, Cambridge Springs, Saegertown, and Meadville filed an offer of financial assistance that month to purchase the line for its net liquidation value of $2.9 million, and the abandonment authority was rescinded. Through the newly-created Northwest Pennsylvania Rail Authority they acquired the property on October 31, 1995, after some delay, for operation by the Oil Creek and Titusville Lines (OCTL), and operations began soon after. But the courts ruled in August 1996 that the ICC had no authority to force the sale, since they had authorized abandonment again in April 1995, and so the line was to pass back to Conrail, who wanted to keep it from falling into the hands of a competitor. In the midst of talks between Conrail and the two companies that were buying its assets, CSX Transportation
CSX Transportation
CSX Transportation operates a Class I railroad in the United States known as the CSX Railroad. It is the main subsidiary of the CSX Corporation. The company is headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, and owns approximately 21,000 route miles...
and the Norfolk Southern Railway
Norfolk Southern Railway
The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I railroad in the United States, owned by the Norfolk Southern Corporation. With headquarters in Norfolk, Virginia, the company operates 21,500 route miles in 22 eastern states, the District of Columbia and the province of Ontario, Canada...
, the authority reached an agreement with Conrail in June 1997, allowing it to keep the line.
Norfolk Southern (NS), successor to Conrail's lines in the immediate area, agreed in June 1998 to place the Corry-Hornell "Southern Tier Extension" back in service, in exchange for certain financial incentives. This June 1998 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was memorialized in the Surface Transportation Board's record of Decision in July 1998. The New York Legislature
New York Legislature
The New York State Legislature is the term often used to refer to the two houses that act as the state legislature of the U.S. state of New York. The New York Constitution does not designate an official term for the two houses together...
then created the Chautauqua, Cattaraugus, Allegany, and Steuben Southern Tier Extension Railroad Authority (STERA) in June 2000 in order to acquire the New York portion of the line and lease it back to NS. This was done in February 2001, and on April 23, the newly-created WNY&P, a subsidiary of the Livonia, Avon and Lakeville Railroad
Livonia, Avon and Lakeville Railroad
The Livonia, Avon and Lakeville Railroad is a short line railroad that operates in Livingston County and Monroe County in New York, United States...
, sub-leased the line from Norfolk Southern and began operating the line. Except for a short segment near the Buffalo Line
Buffalo Line
The Buffalo Line is a railroad line owned and operated by the Norfolk Southern Railway in the U.S. states of New York and Pennsylvania. The line runs from Buffalo, New York southeast to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania along a former Pennsylvania Railroad line...
crossing at Olean, which NS did not sub-lease to WNY&P (but for which Norfolk Southern did provide overhead trackage rights to WNY&P), the WNY&P sub-leased the line from Corry PA to Hornell NY from Norfolk Southern.
Looking to the west, the WNY&P acquired the Corry-Meadville line from the Northwest Pennsylvania Rail Authority in January 2002, for $1 and the cancellation of the authority's $1.9 million debt. The authority had borrowed the money in the 1990s from NORPA, then a subsidiary of the Delaware Otsego Corporation
Delaware Otsego Corporation
The Delaware Otsego Corporation is an American railway holding company which owns the subsidiary New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway as well as other, smaller branch line railroads, collectively known as the DO System...
, to pay for the acquisition in conjunction with $1 million from the state. (Delaware Otsego financed the purchase to preserve a possible connection between its subsidiary New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway
New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway
The New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway , also known as the Susie-Q, or simply the Susquehanna, is a Class II American freight railway operating over 500 miles of track in the northeastern states of New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. It was formed in 1881 from the merger of several...
and CSX Transportation
CSX Transportation
CSX Transportation operates a Class I railroad in the United States known as the CSX Railroad. It is the main subsidiary of the CSX Corporation. The company is headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, and owns approximately 21,000 route miles...
in the case of a Norfolk Southern Railway
Norfolk Southern Railway
The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I railroad in the United States, owned by the Norfolk Southern Corporation. With headquarters in Norfolk, Virginia, the company operates 21,500 route miles in 22 eastern states, the District of Columbia and the province of Ontario, Canada...
/Conrail merger.) The WNY&P bought NORPA in 2001, allowing it to cancel the debt. At the same time as it acquired the line, the WNY&P replaced OCTL as operator. Thanks to state and federal funding, the WNY&P began repairing the out-of-service parts of the line in August 2002, and by fall 2003 it had been sufficiently rehabilitated to allow full operations. In its agreement with WNY&P in which it sub-leased operating rights to WNY&P for the portion of the line from Corry PA to Hornell NY, NS retained overhead trackage rights for that portion of the line, allowing NS trains to enter or exit that portion of the Southern Tier Extension operated by the WNY&P at either Hornell (Southern Tier Line
Southern Tier Line
The Southern Tier Line is a railroad line owned and operated by the Norfolk Southern Railway in the U.S. states of New York and Pennsylvania. The line runs from Suffern, New York northwest to Buffalo, New York mostly along a former Erie Railroad line. From Suffern to Sparrowbush along which...
), Olean (Buffalo Line
Buffalo Line
The Buffalo Line is a railroad line owned and operated by the Norfolk Southern Railway in the U.S. states of New York and Pennsylvania. The line runs from Buffalo, New York southeast to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania along a former Pennsylvania Railroad line...
), Corry (Buffalo and Pittsburgh Railroad
Buffalo and Pittsburgh Railroad
The Buffalo and Pittsburgh Railroad is a Class II railroad operating in New York and Pennsylvania.The BPRR is owned by Genesee and Wyoming Industries. Its main line runs between Buffalo, New York and Eidenau, Pennsylvania, north of Pittsburgh. Here, connections are made to the city center via the...
trackage rights), and Meadville (Meadville Line). This provided a bypass around Buffalo for freight including Upstate New York
Upstate New York
Upstate New York is the region of the U.S. state of New York that is located north of the core of the New York metropolitan area.-Definition:There is no clear or official boundary between Upstate New York and Downstate New York...
- and New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
-bound Monongahela
Monongahela River
The Monongahela River is a river on the Allegheny Plateau in north-central West Virginia and southwestern Pennsylvania in the United States...
coal.
In December 2005, the WNY&P expanded further with the lease from NS of the ex-Erie Franklin Secondary and associated lines between Meadville and Rouseville, just north of Oil City. This connected the WNY&P directly to industries in the Franklin-Oil City area, and indirectly to Titusville via Oil Creek and Titusville Lines. By the end of 2006, NS decided to discontinue operations north of Driftwood, Pennsylvania
Driftwood, Pennsylvania
Driftwood is a borough in Cameron County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 103 at the 2000 census.-History:Driftwood was incorporated as the second and last borough in Cameron County on January 17, 1872. The tracks of the Philadelphia & Erie Railroad, however, had previously been...
on the Buffalo Line
Buffalo Line
The Buffalo Line is a railroad line owned and operated by the Norfolk Southern Railway in the U.S. states of New York and Pennsylvania. The line runs from Buffalo, New York southeast to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania along a former Pennsylvania Railroad line...
, a line that the Pennsylvania Railroad
Pennsylvania Railroad
The Pennsylvania Railroad was an American Class I railroad, founded in 1846. Commonly referred to as the "Pennsy", the PRR was headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania....
had acquired through its control of the former Western New York and Pennsylvania Railway and Philadelphia and Erie Railroad
Philadelphia and Erie Railroad
The Philadelphia and Erie Railroad was a railroad that operated in Pennsylvania between 1861 and 1907. It was subsequently merged into the Pennsylvania Railroad .-History:...
. The line north of Machias would be leased to the Buffalo and Pittsburgh Railroad
Buffalo and Pittsburgh Railroad
The Buffalo and Pittsburgh Railroad is a Class II railroad operating in New York and Pennsylvania.The BPRR is owned by Genesee and Wyoming Industries. Its main line runs between Buffalo, New York and Eidenau, Pennsylvania, north of Pittsburgh. Here, connections are made to the city center via the...
, which then had trackage rights, and the remainder between Machias and Driftwood was to become a WNY&P operation. STERA acquired the line between Machias and the state line in February 2007, appending this portion of the line to the arrangement specified in its June 1998 MOU with Norfolk Southern. STERA then leased the line between Machias and the state line back to Norfolk Southern, which in turn sub-leased it to WNY&P. Norfolk Southern leased the line from the state line to Driftwood PA directly to WNY&P. On August 4 the WNY&P took over operations between Machias and Driftwood. The sub-lease of the Machias to state line portion of the Buffalo line also included the sub-lease of the small portion of the Southern Tier Extension near the crossing at Olean (the "Olean Rail Yard"), and installed WNY&P as operator of a short branch to Farmers Valley, Pennsylvania
Farmers Valley, Pennsylvania
Farmers Valley is an unincorporated community in Keating Township, McKean County, Pennsylvania, United States, between Coryville and Smethport.- References :...
. The latter had been built, in part, by the Pittsburg, Shawmut and Northern Railroad
Pittsburg, Shawmut and Northern Railroad
The Pittsburg, Shawmut and Northern Railroad also known as the Shawmut Line, was a Class I railroad company operating passenger and freight service on standard gauge track in central Pennsylvania and western New York. The line was financially troubled for its entire life span and declared...
, and acquired by the Pennsylvania after that company ceased operations in 1947.