(The Times Herald published the following story by Rick Miller on its website on August 21.)
OLEAN, N.Y. — Step by step, the Western New York & Pennsylvania Railroad has rebuilt the former Erie-Lackawanna rail line from Hornell to Meadville, Pa.
Now, said William D. “Bill” Burt, WNY&P president and chief operating officer, it’s time to bring back customers to shipping freight across the Southern Tier by rail.
The shortline railroad hosted a 3 1/2 -hour rail excursion from Hornell to Salamanca Wednesday for members of the Southern Tier Extension Rail Authority, shippers, state and county officials and the media.
Nearly $25 million has been invested over the past two years in the 188-mile line running through parts of two states.
Several washouts in Allegany County have been repaired — some more than once — thanks to recent flooding. Thousands of ties have been replaced and new quarter-mile-long welded track is being installed along portions of the line. New or refurbished signals were installed at 55 crossings in New York and 31 in Pennsylvania.
A test run from Meadville to Hornell earlier this week was made in 6 1/2 hours.
“We’ve still got a lot more work to do, but we’re ready to run freight now,” said Mr. Burt, a Cuba native who recalled watching freight trains speed across the Southern Tier as a teen-ager. The railroad plans to begin regular freight runs across the entire line this fall.
The section between Olean and Wellsville has not been used in 12 years. The last freight that went across the line were train loads of tanks from the Midwest in the months leading up to Desert Storm, the first war with Iraq.
The Southern Tier Extension Railroad Authority agreed in 2001 to a tax abatement program with Norfolk Southern Railroad, which purchased the line from Conrail in 1998. The agreement allowed the rail authority to select a shortline operator, WNY&P, to rehabilitate and run the line.
Southern Tier West Regional Planning and Development Board officials pushed for 15 years to take over the line first from Conrail, then Norfolk Southern, as a means of keeping existing industry and attracting new businesses and jobs in Allegany, Cattaraugus and Chautauqua counties.
Mr. Burt said regular freight runs between Olean and Jamestown have been ongoing for the past two years. carloads have increased from 150 in 2001 to more than 2000 cars last year.
“We?re approaching this step by step to come up with attractive service and rates,” said Mr. Burt, who is also vice president and general manager of the Livonia, Avon and Lakeville Railroad in the Finger Lakes.
“We will be approaching potential customers with customized packages,” he said. “We need to find out if they were using rail in the past” and what it will take to get them to use it again.
“We can offer industries a 25 percent to 30 percent advantage over trucking, lowering the cost of doing business. But, service has to be reliable. We?re locally-based, so we?re right here.”
The WNY&P locomotives pulled three passenger cars for the trip between Hornell, where the Southern Tier Extension meets up with the Norfolk Southern line to Buffalo, and Salamanca.
People at rail crossings, factories and villages along the route waved at the train. Drivers stopped their vehicles at rail crossings they hadn?t had to stop at in years because there were no trains using the line.
Mr. Burt pointed to spots near Friendship and Belmont that had washed out, were repaired and washed out again during flooding in late July and earlier this month. “It looked like a war zone,” he added.
Gerard “Jess” Fitzpatrick of Ellicottville, the Cattaraugus County Legislature chairman, member of Southern Tier West and chairman of the rail authority, said he initially didn?t think through rail service would ever be restored. He said he has been pleasantly surprised and is confident the railroad will be successful.
Another Southern Tier West Board member, Joseph K. Eade of Olean, told Mr. Burt, “This is a smoother ride than the bus trip (to Hornell) on I-86.”
“Everyone knows a passenger train is a superior way to go,” Mr. Burt replied with a smile as he looked out the picture window of the rear passenger car. “I love it back here, watching it go by,” he added.
Mr. Burt refused to discuss the railroad?s long-range plans, which local officials say includes through traffic from Meadville to Hornell, bypassing the Buffalo area.
Sue Meyers, an Allegany County legislator and member of Southern Tier West, said at one time she never thought she would see trains crossing Allegany County again.
“This is another piece in our economic development puzzle,” she added, waving back at people at a rail crossing in Wellsville.
The investment in the rail line includes the amount of property taxes municipalities and counties gave up to allow the takeover by the rail authority, according to Donald Rychnowski, executive director of Southern Tier West.
Mr. Burt, a 1972 Cuba Central School graduate, got his bachelor?s degree in political science from SUNY at Geneseo before getting graduate degrees in engineering and management from Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute.
He is familiar with every foot of the Meadville to Hornell line. “I?ve got good people around me,” he said.
They include Vice President and General Manager Steve Timko, a former supervisor and dispatcher for the Erie-Lackawanna and for Conrail.
“We?ve got a very experienced team,” Mr. Burt continued, noting that weekly meetings have been held over the past six months as track and rail bed was rehabilitated and replaced. Rail was bridging gullies created by washouts along the Genesee River.
“When the welded rail is installed, this ride will be like glass,” Mr. Burt said. The objective is to get all the sections up to a 40 MPH rating.
The train stopped in Norfolk Southern?s Olean rail yard to pick up seven cars bound for Jamestown. It pulled into Salamanca, just outside the Rail Museum about 2:30 p.m., 3 1/2 hours after leaving Hornell.
Long-term, Mr. Burt noted the Meadville to Hornell line “is the shortest route from the Monongahela coal mines near Pittsburgh to upstate New York coal plants.”
But there are potential customers all along the route ? Cuba, Belmont, Wellsville and Andover, for example.
“We’ll get the customers by showing we are reliable — then we’ll figure out how to make a profit,” Mr. Burt said. “We’re one-third of the way we’ll be in 10 years. It’s a step-by-step process.”