The Crescent Corridor is a railroad corridor operated by the Norfolk Southern Railway (NS). The project, first proposed in 2007, and scheduled for completion by 2020, spans 13 states from New York to Louisiana. [1] [2] It is a private-public partnership between Norfolk Southern and the various state and federal governments. [2]
Norfolk Southern plans that the project will expand its entire network from the Northeast to the Southeast regions. It is expected[ by whom? ] that the majority of cargo along the corridor would be intermodal. Norfolk Southern projects the removal of 1.3 million long-haul trucks annually from interstate highways, thereby reducing traffic congestion and helping the environment. [3]
The corridor is 1,400 miles (2,300 km) long and 28 new trains daily would be expected to go into service along with improvements to rail yards along the corridor. NS has proposed sharing the costs with federal and state agencies in a public-private partnership. The overall project cost estimate is USD$2.5 billion as of 2009. [4] NS plans to expand and upgrade existing rail lines along the corridor to accommodate fast freight trains and also purchase new locomotives and freight cars, and build new terminals.
Norfolk Southern opened new terminal facilities for Charlotte, North Carolina; Memphis, Tennessee; Birmingham, Alabama and Greencastle, Pennsylvania. It also upgraded terminals in Harrisburg and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
Norfolk Southern will expand Croxton Yard in New Jersey. [4] [5]
Greencastle, Pennsylvania Intermodal terminal dedicated in June 2013. [6]
Memphis Regional Intermodal Facility in Rossville, Tennessee opened in July 2012. [7]
Birmingham Regional Intermodal Facility in McCalla, Alabama opened in October 2012. [8]
Charlotte, North Carolina Intermodal terminal opened in December 2013. [9]
The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States. Headquartered in Atlanta, the company was formed in 1982 with the merger of the Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. The company operates 19,420 route miles (31,250 km) in 22 eastern states, the District of Columbia, and has rights in Canada over the Albany to Montreal route of the Canadian Pacific Kansas City. Norfolk Southern Railway is the leading subsidiary of the Norfolk Southern Corporation.
The Crescent is a daily long-distance passenger train operated by Amtrak between New York City and New Orleans. The 1,377-mile (2,216 km) route connects the Northeast to the Gulf Coast via the Appalachian Piedmont, with major stops in Charlotte, North Carolina; Atlanta, Georgia; and Birmingham, Alabama.
The Southern Railway was a class 1 railroad based in the Southern United States between 1894 and 1982, when it merged with the Norfolk and Western Railway (N&W) to form the Norfolk Southern Railway. The railroad was the product of nearly 150 predecessor lines that were combined, reorganized and recombined beginning in the 1830s, formally becoming the Southern Railway in 1894.
Pan Am Railways, Inc. (PAR) is a subsidiary of CSX Corporation that operates Class II regional railroads covering northern New England from Mattawamkeag, Maine, to Rotterdam Junction, New York. Pan Am Railways is primarily made up of former Class II regional railroads such as Boston and Maine Corporation, Maine Central Railroad Company, Portland Terminal Company, and Springfield Terminal Railway Company. It was formerly known as Guilford Transportation Industries and was also known as Guilford Rail System. Guilford bought the name, colors, and logo of Pan American World Airways in 1998.
The Cincinnati, New Orleans and Texas Pacific Railway is a railroad that owns the Cincinnati Southern Railway from Cincinnati, Ohio, south to Chattanooga, Tennessee, and leases it to the Norfolk Southern Railway system.
Croxton is a section of Jersey City in the New Jersey Meadowlands in Hudson County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.
The Heartland Corridor is a public-private partnership between the Norfolk Southern Railway (NS) and the Federal Highway Administration and three U.S. states to improve railroad freight operations.
The Lurgan Branch is a railroad line owned and operated by the Norfolk Southern Railway in the U.S. states of Pennsylvania and Maryland. The line is part of the NS Harrisburg Division and runs from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania southwest to Hagerstown, Maryland along former Reading Company and Pennsylvania Railroad lines. Its northeast end is at a junction with the Harrisburg Line, Pittsburgh Line, Royalton Branch, and Amtrak's Keystone Corridor ; its southwest end is at the beginning of the Hagerstown District. At Lemoyne it intersects the Enola Branch.
The Virginia Port Authority (VPA) is an autonomous agency of the Commonwealth of Virginia that owns The Port of Virginia, a group of facilities with their activity centered on the harbor of Hampton Roads, Virginia.
Pan Am Southern, LLC is a freight railroad jointly owned by Norfolk Southern Railway (NS) and CSX Corporation. PAS is independently operated by the Berkshire and Eastern Railroad, a subsidiary of Genesee & Wyoming. PAS owns trackage known as the Patriot Corridor between Albany, New York, and the Boston, Massachusetts, area, utilizing rail lines formerly owned by the Fitchburg Railroad and later on the Boston and Maine Railroad. It was previously operated by PAR subsidiary Springfield Terminal Railway.
National Gateway is a multi-stage railroad construction project in the United States promoted by CSX Transportation, a unit of CSX Corporation. It is designed to improve rail connections between ports in the U.S. mid-Atlantic seaboard and the Midwest by upgrading bridges and tunnels to allow taller freight trains. In 2008 the company announced its plans to invest $300 million, and is seeking investment from state governments and the U.S. federal government of an additional $400 million as a public-private partnership. Phase 1 of the $850 million project, between CSX's existing terminal in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, and its hub facility in Northwest Ohio. was completed in September 2013.
National Docks Secondary is a freight rail line within Conrail's North Jersey Shared Assets Area in Hudson County, New Jersey, used by CSX Transportation. It provides access for the national rail network to maritime, industrial, and distribution facilities at Port Jersey, the Military Ocean Terminal at Bayonne (MOTBY), and Constable Hook as well as carfloat operations at Greenville Yard. The line is an important component in the planned expansion of facilities in the Port of New York and New Jersey. The single track right of way comprises rail beds, viaducts, bridges, and tunnels originally developed at the end of the 19th century by competing railroads.
The Pittsburgh Line is the Norfolk Southern Railway's primary east–west artery in its Pittsburgh Division and Harrisburg Division across the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and is part of the Keystone Corridor, Amtrak-Norfolk Southern's combined rail corridor.
The North Bergen Yard is freight rail yard and intermodal terminal in North Bergen, New Jersey parallel to Tonnelle Avenue between 49th and 69th Streets. Located within the North Jersey Shared Assets Area, the facility is part of CSX Transportation (CSXT) and the origination point of its CSX River Subdivision at the southern end of the Albany Division. On its west side, the New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway (NYSW) runs the length of the yard and operates a bulk transloading operation immediately adjacent to it.
ExpressRail is a network of on- or near-dock rail yards supporting intermodal freight transport at the major container terminals of the Port of New York and New Jersey. The development of dockside trackage and rail yards for transloading has been overseen by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which works in partnership with other public and private stakeholders. As of 2019, four ExpressRail facilities were in operation, with a total built capacity of 1.5 million lifts.
The Norfolk Southern Railway Memphis District — West End runs between Norfolk Southern Sheffield Yard in Sheffield, Alabama to Tower 17 at Memphis, Tennessee. The Memphis District - IC District connects at Rudy on the east side of Corinth, Mississippi. The Kansas City Southern Railway Artesia Subdivision crosses at MP 458.8A in Corinth, Mississippi. West of Rossville, Tennessee is the entrance to the Rossville Intermodal Facility which turns south off the mainline towards the Mississippi state line. The mainline continues into Memphis, Tennessee where it reaches NS Harris Yard at MP 545.0A. On the west end of NS Harris Yard two mainlines run towards downtown and are identified as the East and West Mains. The West Main crosses the Union Pacific Memphis Subdivision at KC Junction. Both mains terminate at Tower 17 in downtown Memphis, Tennessee.
The Washington District is a Norfolk Southern Railway line in the U.S. state of Virginia that connects Alexandria and Lynchburg. Most of the line was built from 1850 to 1860 by the Orange and Alexandria Railroad, while a small portion in the center opened in 1880 as the Charlottesville and Rapidan Railroad. Today, the line is mainly used for freight service, but Amtrak's Crescent, Cardinal and Northeast Regional passenger services use all or part of the line, and the Virginia Railway Express Manassas Line commuter service uses the northernmost portion of the line.
William Walter Hay (1908–1998) was an American civil engineer and professor remembered with the annual American Railway Engineering and Maintenance-of-Way Association (AREMA) Hay Award recognizing outstanding achievements in railway engineering.
