Boston & Maine Railroad (B&M;) / a unit of Pan-Am Railways
Official Pan-Am Web Page: http://www.panamrailways.com/
Pan-Am wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_Am_Railways
The B&M; Vermont operation consists of 6.28 miles of track slicing off the corner of Vermont through Pownal on a line that runs between Mechanicville, N.Y., Lowell, Mass., and Maine. In addition, occasional service is still run over the New England Central Railroad as far as White River Junction (this traffic will soon be taken over by the New England Central under a haulage contract). B&M; is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Pan Am Railways (PAR), formerly know as Guilford Rail System (GRS), now a part of Pan Am Systems. Actual train operations are by Springfield Terminal, another Pan Am subsidiary.
Canadian National (CN)
East Alburgh VT – by Kevin Burkholder
CN, Vermont’s only Class I railroad, owns three miles of track in Alburg connecting New England Central Railroad to its through line to Montreal and thereafter Canadian destinations. CN operates a daily train from Montreal as far as St. Albans, VT including trackage rights over the New England Central .
Canadian Pacific (CP)
The Canadian Pacific Railway has operates from the Newport rail yard (connecting with Vermont Rai System’s WACR) through Troy, Vermont into Quebec and re-enters Vermont to serve Richford, the line continuing back into Quebec and points north. CP also connects with Vermont Rail System in Whitehall NY, just west of Rutland.
Clarendon and Pittsford Railroad (CLP)
Part of the Vermont Rail System family, the CLP is a privately-owned and operated railroad with 18 miles of track, seven of which are in New York State. The CLP operates between Rutland and Whitehall, New York, acting as a “bridge line” carrier for commodities from Canadian Pacific Railway moving to and from Vermont Railway and Green Mountain Railroad. GMRC’s “Green Mountain Gateway” to Bellows Falls handles rail freight to and from the New England Central Railroad, Providence and Worcester Railroad Company (www.pwrr.com) and the Mass Central Railroad (www.masscentralrr.com). CLP also hosts Amtrak passenger service between Whitehall, New York and Rutland, and it directly serves Vermont’s largest rail shipper, OMYA, Inc., at Florence by a branch line.
Connecticut River Subdivision of the Washington County Railroad (WACR/CRS)
St. Johnsbury VT – by Kevin Burkholder
This railroad operates on a state-owned rail line with a short term lease for local and through service from White River Jct., to the southern limit of the Newport rail yard where it connects with the Montreal, Maine and Atlantic and in White River were it connects with the NECR, the Concord Claremont Railroad, and the Springfield Terminal Railroad.
Green Mountain Railroad (GMRC)
Part of the Vermont Rail System family, this privately-owned railroad operates on a state-owned rail line in a long term lease partnership since 1964 with the State of Vermont. It provides freight services between Rutland and Bellows Falls over 50 miles of track. (Formerly the east-west portion of Rutland Railroad.)
Most traffic is overhead between customers along the Vermont Railway or interchange with the Canadian Pacific Railroad in Whitehall, NY and with the New England Central Railroad in Bellows Falls, VT, which provides haulage services for traffic interchanged with CSX and with their own customers in Massachusetts. Principal commodities are lumber and building products, steel, petroleum products, highway de-icing salt, talc products, calcium carbonate (limestone) products, cement, feed grain, and plastics. GMRC directly serves the Luzenac America, Inc. plant in Ludlow, which ships talc products throughout the United States and Canada.
GMRC started operations in 1965 and pays a percentage of its gross revenues to the state as do other railroad operating companies leasing state-owned rail lines. It provides excursion passenger services between Bellows Falls, Chester and Rutland.
Lamoille Valley
The LVRR historically operated between Swanton and St. Johnsbury. The rail infrastructure has been removed and the right of way has become a multi-use trail with the property railbanked pursuant to federal and Vermont law, similar to the Mississquoi and Beebe Spur Rail Trails.
New England Central Railroad (NECR)
NECR is a wholly owned subsidiary of multi-national railroad holding compay, Genesee & Wyoming.
NECR operates 325 miles from the Canadian border at East Alburg, Vermont to New London, Connecticut on Long Island Sound. Annual carloads handled by the NECR are in excess of 40,000, with a wide variety of products being handled. Much traffic moves through Vermont from the Canadian National to customers in Southern New England. In addition NECR brings Canadian petroleum and gas to Vermont, wood chips to Burlington Electric, grain to a number of Vermont feed distributors and interchange traffic to the Vermont Rail System and Claremont & Concord Railroads. Principal commodities hauled are forest products, paper, primary metal products, agricultural feed and feed ingredients, road salt, chemicals, and petroleum products. It employs approximately 104 people.
The NECR was preceeded by the Central Vermont Railway, which was owned by Canadian National. New England Central took over in 1995.
NECR has nine interchange locations with both Class I and regional connecting carriers as follows: Canadian National at St. Albans, CSX Transportation at Palmer, Massachusetts, Green Mountain Railroad at Bellows Falls, Guilford Rail System and the Washington County Railroad Connecticut River Subdivision at White River Junction, Massachusetts Central Railroad at Palmer, Massachusetts, Providence and Worcester Railroad at New London and Willimantic, Conn. (early 2007), Vermont Railway at Burlington, Washington County Railroad at Montpelier Jct., and Claremont & Concord RR at Claremont Jct., New Hampshire and White River Jct.
Additionally the Bellows Falls interchange with the Green Mountain Railroad serves as a connection to the Norfolk Southern and Canadian Pacific railroads via a haulage agreement with the Green Mountain Railroad.
In addition to regular line haul moves to direct receivers, and bridge shipments between their connections, NECR also has several distribution and warehouse centers located on the line. These centers, located in Vermont, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Connecticut, handle lumber and other forest products, paper and paper products, plastic, steel, and steel products.
NECR has cleared their main line to handle double stack and trilevel automobile rack carriers to intermodal and automobile distribution facilities via its interchange connection with Providence and Worcester Railroad.
The NECR hosts a daily Amtrak service, The Vermonter, which provides passenger service paralleling I-91 and I-89 between St. Albans and New York City.
Pan-Am Railway
(formerly Guilford Transportation; Boston & Maine Railroad)
Official Pan-Am Web Page: http://www.panamrailways.com/
Pan-Am wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_Am_Railways
Pan-Am’s Vermont operation consists of 6.28 miles of track slicing off the corner of Vermont through Pownal on a line that runs between Mechanicville, N.Y., Lowell, Mass., and Maine. In addition, occasional service is still run over the New England Central Railroad as far as White River Junction (this traffic will soon be taken over by the New England Central under a haulage contract). Pan Am Railways (PAR), was formerly know as Guilford Rail System and is the succesor to the Boson & Maine Railroad. Actual train operations are by Springfield Terminal, another Pan Am subsidiary.
St. Lawrence & Atlantic (SL&A;)
The St. Lawrence & Atlantic Railroad (SL&A;) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Genesee & Wyoming Inc., a publicly-traded short line railroad holding company, headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut. SL&A; consists of 165 miles of main line track in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. Its affiliate, the St. Lawrence & Atlantic Railroad (Quebec) Inc., (SLQ), consists of 94 miles of track in Quebec, which connects with SL&A; at Norton, Vermont. SL&A; operates 32 miles from Norton, Vermont, to North Stratford, New Hampshire. It has a freight yard and office in Island Pond, Vermont. It is the only rail line in Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine capable of moving hi-cube, double-stacked containers on freight cars the entire length of the railroad. SL&A;’s corporate office is located in Auburn, Maine.
SL&A; interchanges in Norton, Vermont, with SLQ, which interchanges traffic with Canadian National Railway at Richmond, Quebec; in North Stratford, New Hampshire, with New Hampshire Central Railroad; in Groveton, New Hampshire, with New Hampshire Vermont Railroad; and in Danville Junction, Maine, with Pan Am Railway (formerly Guilford Rail System’s Springfield Terminal). Approximately @26,000 annual carloads of SL&A; traffic travel through Vermont, of which approximately @2,060 carloads of traffic originate or terminate in Vermont. Freight handled consists of carload and mixed intermodal shipments of paper, forest products, chemicals, grain, salt and various consumer goods.
SL&A; employs 75; twelve of which are based in Vermont, many of whom live near Island Pond. Presently, there are no passenger operations on the line; however, the potential of passenger service exists between Montreal, Vermont, New Hampshire and Portland, Maine. Part of SL&A;’s rail line between Portland and Auburn, Maine, has been designated as a high-speed corridor for passenger rail, and there is an initiative to extend that to Vermont and on to Montreal.
Springfield Terminal, a unit of Pan-Am Railway
(formerly Guilford Transportation)
Official Pan-Am Web Page: http://www.panamrailways.com/
Pan-Am wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_Am_Railways
Springfield Terminal began life as a short electrified branch to Springfield, VT that also operated trolleys. Owned by the Boston & Maine Railroad, it’s role changed after Boston & Maine was purchased by Guilford Transportation who transferred opeating authority for it’s network to Springfield Terminal in order to take advantage of a better labor contract. Guilford Transportation is now known as Pan-Am Railways after the company purchased naming rights from the remains of the airline. Pan-Am’s Vermont operation consists of 6.28 miles of track slicing off the corner of Vermont through Pownal on a line that runs between Mechanicville, N.Y., Lowell, Mass., and Maine. In addition, occasional service is still run over the New England Central Railroad as far as White River Junction (this traffic will soon be taken over by the New England Central under a haulage contract).
Vermont Railway (VTR)
This privately-owned railroad has operated a state-owned rail line in a long term lease partnership with the State of Vermont since 1964. (No. Bennington-Burlington portion of the former Rutland Railroad.) It provides both freight and passenger services along its system route. VTR currently has freight interchanges with Canadian Pacific Railway (via CLP) at Whitehall, New York, offering service to New England Central Railroad at Burlington and Green Mountain Railroad at Rutland.
Commodities handled include calcium carbonate (limestone), petroleum products, feed grains, food products, plastics, lumber and building products, highway de-icing salt, cement, aggregates, talc products, LP gas and fertilizers. The two largest customers are Omya in Florence and Global, the oil terminal in Burlington which supplies the bulk of Northern Vermont’s gasoline and heating oil.
VTR currently operates 127 miles of track within Vermont. It hosts Amtrak passenger service at Rutland and specialty excursion trains throughout the year.
The entire VTR has become known as the “Western Corridor,” also known as ABRBE (for Albany-Bennington-Rutland-Burlington-Essex Jc). The State of Vermont is involved in a process of rebuilding the line to 59mph to allow Amtrak to run to Burlington.
Washington County Railroad (WACR)
Granite in Montpelier – By Kevin Burkholder
Part of the Vermont Rail System, this privately-owned railroad operates a state-owned rail line with a short term lease partnership with the State of Vermont in the Montpelier/Barre area. It currently has freight connections with NECR at Montpelier Junction. Its primary commodity in Barre is granite.. It also operates the Connecticut River Subdivision from White River Jct., to the southern limit of the Newport yard where it connects with the Canadian Pacific and in White River with the NECR, the Concord Claremont Railroad and Springfield Terminal Railroad.