Central New York Railroad

Central New York Railroad

CNYK (Binghamton to Port Jervis) and adjoining portions of the Southern Tier Line
Overview
Headquarters	Cooperstown, New York, U.S.
Reporting mark	CNYK
Locale	West Branch Delaware River
Dates of operation	1972–1988 2004–Present
Technical
Track gauge	4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Length	123.1 miles (198.1 km)[1]

The Central New York Railroad (reporting mark CNYK) is a shortline railroad operating local freight service along ex-Southern Tier Line trackage (ex-Erie Railroad/Erie Lackawanna Railway mainline trackage) in New York and Pennsylvania.

The line begins at Port Jervis, following the Delaware River to Deposit and the Susquehanna River from Lanesboro, where it passes over the Starrucca Viaduct, to Binghamton. It is a subsidiary of the Delaware Otsego Corporation, which also owns the New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway, operator of through trains over the line, along with the Norfolk Southern Railway.

The line the Central New York Railroad (CNYK) originally operated on, which was a 21.7-mile (34.9 km) branch line between Richfield Junction near Cassville and Richfield Springs, New York, was first opened in November 1872, when it began serving as a branch for the Utica, Chenango and Susquehanna Valley Railway.^[2] The railway was later absorbed into the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad (DL&W), which in turn merged into the Erie Lackawanna Railway (EL). By the early 1970s, the Richfield Springs branch was deemed unprofitable by the EL, and they opted to abandon it.^[3]

Walter Rich, the owner of the Delaware Otsego Corporation (DO), believed the branch could be reorganized as a profitable freight operation, and he was interested in expanding his company's short line assets.^[3] In 1972, DO purchased the Richfield Springs branch from the EL, and the new Central New York Railroad commenced operations on December 12.^[4] The CNYK initially turned profits for DO, since they served a number of freight customers who still relied on rail services, such as Agway's propane distribution firm.^[3]

In 1982, DO purchased two former EL routes out of Binghamton, New York, from Conrail, one of which provided the CNYK's connection to the National rail network.^[5] The CNYK and the two routes quickly became labeled as the Northern Division of the New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway (NYS&W), another DO subsidiary.^[5] Throughout the 1980s, the CNYK's freight profits gradually declined, and in 1987, the eastern end of the line was shut down.^[6] In early 1988, the CNYK suspended the rest of their operations, and they were authorized to abandon their line in August 1995.^[7] While the CNYK became inactive from 1988 to 2004, the CNYK charter was still intact.

On January 1, 2005, DO reactivated the CNYK as a paper corporation, when they leased the Binghamton-Port Jervis section of the Southern Tier Line from the Norfolk Southern Railway (NS). NS retained overhead trackage rights to operate through freight traffic.^[1] All trains the CNYK operates are powered by locomotives owned by the NYS&W, which interchanges with Norfolk Southern at Binghamton and Warwick.^[8][9]

• Hartley, Scott (January 1988). "Regionals In Review - The Delaware Otsego Story". Trains. Vol. 48, no. 3. Kalmbach Publishing. pp. 30–37. Retrieved October 8, 2024.

• Central New York Railroad