The Niagara River is a river that flows north from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario. It forms part of the border between the province of Ontario in Canada and the state of New York in the United States. There are differing theories as to the origin of the river's name. According to Iroquoian scholar Bruce Trigger, Niagara is derived from the name given to a branch of the locally residing native Neutral Confederacy, who are described as being called the Niagagarega people on several late-17th-century French maps of the area. According to George R. Stewart, it comes from the name of an Iroquois town called Ongniaahra, meaning "point of land cut in two".
The Somerset Railroad is a railroad that operates in Niagara County, New York. However, this railroad isn't part of its own company with its own motive power. The railroad is sometimes mistaken as being classified as a Shortline, however it is not a shortline. It is currently operated by CSX Transportation. The railroad was built with the primary objective of providing coal to the Kintigh Generating Station, also known as the Somerset Power Plant, a 675 megawatt coal-fired power plant located in Somerset, New York. The railroad was built in 1983 by the New York State Electric and Gas Co. using new and old rights of way. From Lockport, New York, it runs on the defunct International Railway Co. (IRC) interurban line opened in 1900 under the name Buffalo, Lockport & Olcott Beach (BL&OB) which became part of the IRC in 1902. From Newfane, New York, the SOM sweeps off the IRC to the Hojack Line in Appleton, New York, to West Somerset in the Town of Somerset. It then swings off on new trackage to a series of spurs and a loop at the Kintigh Generating Station.
The Erie Railroad was a railroad that operated in the northeastern United States, originally connecting New York City — more specifically Jersey City, New Jersey, where Erie's former terminal, long demolished, used to stand — with Lake Erie. It expanded west to Chicago with its 1941 merger with the former Atlantic and Great Western Railroad, also known as the New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio Railroad. Its mainline route proved influential in the development and economic growth of the Southern Tier, including cities such as Binghamton, Elmira, and Hornell. The Erie Railroad repair shops were located in Hornell, and were Hornell's largest employer. Hornell was also where Erie's main line split into two routes, one north to Buffalo and the other west to Cleveland.
The Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway, established in 1833 and sometimes referred to as the Lake Shore, was a major part of the New York Central Railroad's Water Level Route from Buffalo, New York, to Chicago, Illinois, primarily along the south shore of Lake Erie and across northern Indiana. The line's trackage is still used as a major rail transportation corridor and hosts Amtrak passenger trains, with the ownership in 1998 split at Cleveland between CSX to the east, and Norfolk Southern in the west.
Interstate 190 is a north–south auxiliary Interstate Highway that connects I-90 in Buffalo, New York with the Canada-U.S. border near Niagara Falls. The freeway bisects downtown Buffalo before crossing Grand Island and travelling around the outskirts of Niagara Falls before crossing the Niagara River on the Queenston-Lewiston Bridge into Ontario. On the Canada side of the Canada–US border, the freeway continues as Highway 405, a short spur that connects with the Queen Elizabeth Way (QEW), which in turn provides a freeway connection to Toronto, Canada's largest city. The 28.34-mile-long (45.61 km) route also provides access to the QEW at the Peace Bridge between Buffalo and Fort Erie, Ontario.
The Terminal Railway of Buffalo was a part of the New York Central Railroad system southeast of Buffalo, New York. It built the Gardenville Branch or Gardenville Cutoff, allowing through trains to bypass Buffalo. The cutoff has since been abandoned in favor of other parallel lines.
The Niagara Subdivision is a railroad line owned and operated by CSX Transportation in the U.S. state of New York. The line runs from Buffalo north and west to Niagara Falls along a former New York Central Railroad line. Its south end is at the Buffalo Terminal Subdivision; its north end is near the Canada–US border at the Whirlpool Bridge. It junctions the Belt Subdivision in Buffalo and the Lockport Subdivision east of Niagara Falls.
New York State Route 425 (NY 425) is a north–south state highway in the western portion of New York in the United States. It extends for 23.85 miles (38.38 km) from an interchange with Interstate 290 (I-290) in the town of Tonawanda to an intersection with NY 18 on the shore of Lake Ontario in the village of Wilson. As it heads north, it connects to several regionally important routes, including U.S. Route 62 (US 62) and NY 104. The section between I-290 and the city of North Tonawanda is a four-lane arterial known as the Twin Cities Memorial Highway. North of the city, the route is primarily a two-lane rural highway.
New York State Route 265 (NY 265) is a 19.75-mile (31.78 km) long state highway located in the western part of New York in the United States. NY 265 is a north–south route that roughly parallels the western parts of the Niagara River in Erie County and Niagara County. For much of its southern course, it is more frequently referred to by its longtime name, Military Road, which dates back to 1801 as a road to connect the city of New Amsterdam and Fort Niagara near Lake Ontario.
The LaSalle Expressway is a 2.62-mile (4.22 km) limited-access highway in Niagara County, New York, in the United States. It begins near the North Grand Island Bridge at an interchange with Interstate 190 (I-190) in Niagara Falls and ends just south of the Niagara Falls International Airport at Williams Road in Wheatfield. The LaSalle Expressway is part of New York State Route 951A (NY 951A), an unsigned reference route; the other, 0.42-mile (0.68 km) portion is located along Niagara Street between the Rainbow Bridge and Fifth Street in downtown Niagara Falls. Most of this portion, which is not connected to the LaSalle Expressway, is also part of the signed NY 384.
The Citizens Regional Transportation Corporation (CRTC) is a grass-roots organization promoting the implementation and expansions of light-rail service for the City of Buffalo and the surrounding Buffalo/Niagara region in New York State.
The Elmira and Lake Ontario Railroad was a subsidiary of the Northern Central Railway and later the Pennsylvania Railroad, formed to give the Northern Central an outlet for coal traffic on Lake Ontario.
The Lockport Subdivision is a railroad line owned by CSX Transportation in the U.S. state of New York. The line runs from Lockport west to a junction with the Niagara Subdivision east of Niagara Falls in Sanborn, New York along a former New York Central Railroad line. At its east end, it interchanges with the Falls Road Railroad and Somerset Railroad.
The International Railway Company (IRC) was a transportation company formed in a 1902 merger between several Buffalo-area interurban and street railways. The city railways that merged were the West Side Street Railway, the Crosstown Street Railway and the Buffalo Traction Company. The suburban railroads that merged included the Buffalo & Niagara Electric Street Railway, and its subsidiary the Buffalo, Lockport & Olcott Beach Railway; the Buffalo, Depew & Lancaster Railway; and the Niagara Falls Park & River Railway. Later the IRC acquired the Niagara Gorge Railroad (NGRR) as a subsidiary, which was sold in 1924 to the Niagara Falls Power Company. The NGRR also leased the Lewiston & Youngstown Frontier Railroad.
The Rochester, Lockport and Buffalo Railroad was an electric interurban railway that was constructed between Rochester, New York, and Lockport, New York, connecting to the International Railway Co. at Lockport for service into Buffalo. Opened in 1909 as the Buffalo, Lockport and Rochester Railway, the route followed the Erie Canal and the New York Central Railroad's Falls Road branch for most of its length. For a brief period of time, the railway was part of the Beebe Syndicate of affiliated interurban railways stretching from Syracuse to Buffalo. Entering receivership in 1917, it was reorganized as the Rochester, Lockport and Buffalo Railroad in 1919. After years of struggling with declining revenue during the Depression years, the railway's last day of service was April 30, 1931.
Transportation in Buffalo, New York is dominated by automobile use, but other modes of transportation exist in the city.
