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 [ [http://www.trainweb.org/southerntier/lineinfo/crasoul.html Conrail Southern Tier Line Timetable] ] mostly along a former Erie Railroad line. From Suffern to Port Jervis along which passenger service still runs, the line is leased to and maintained by Metro-North Railroad. From its east end, NS has trackage rights south on the New Jersey Transit Main Line to Conrail's North Jersey Shared Assets Area; it junctions with the Lake Erie District at its west end. Along the way it meets the Corning Secondary at Corning, New York.

History

The oldest piece of the line, from Suffern to Goshen, opened in 1841 as part of the New York and Erie Rail Road. [PDFlink| [http://www.prrths.com/Hagley/PRR1841%20May%2004.wd.pdf PRR Chronology, 1841] |60.7 KiB , May 2004 Edition] Extensions opened to Port Jervis and Binghamton in 1848, [PDFlink| [http://www.prrths.com/Hagley/PRR1848%20Apr%2005.pdf PRR Chronology, 1848] |38.1 KiB , April 2005 Edition] Owego in 1849, [PDFlink| [http://www.prrths.com/Hagley/PRR1849%20Apr%2005.pdf PRR Chronology, 1849] |43.2 KiB , April 2005 Edition] and Dunkirk (leaving the Southern Tier Line at Hornell) in 1851. [PDFlink| [http://www.prrths.com/Hagley/PRR1851%20Mar%2005.pdf PRR Chronology, 1851] |67.7 KiB , March 2005 Edition] At the Buffalo end, the Attica and Buffalo Railroad opened from Buffalo east to Attica in 1842, [PDFlink| [http://www.prrths.com/Hagley/PRR1842%20May%2004.wd.pdf PRR Chronology, 1842] |70.6 KiB , May 2004 Edition] but was part of the New York Central Railroad system until 1852, when it was sold to the Buffalo and New York City Railroad east of Depew. Also in 1852, the Buffalo and New York City Railroad built southeast from Attica to Hornell and west from Depew to Buffalo. [PDFlink| [http://www.prrths.com/Hagley/PRR1852%20Mar%2005.pdf PRR Chronology, 1852] |83.5 KiB , March 2005 Edition] The entire line became part of the Erie Railroad through leases and mergers.

A small part of the line, from East Corning west through Corning to Painted Post, is not the former Erie but the former Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad, opened in 1882 by the New York, Lackawanna and Western Railroad.Fact|date=February 2007 After the Erie and Lackawanna merged to form the Erie-Lackawanna Railroad, that portion of the former Erie was abandoned and traffic was rerouted to the ex-Lackawanna.Fact|date=February 2007 The EL was taken ovey by Conrail in 1976, and in the 1999 Conrail breakup the Southern Tier Line was assigned to Norfolk Southern.

References