(The following story by Keith Whitcomb Jr. appeared on the Bennington Banner website on August 13, 2009.)
POWNAL, Vt. — Work being done on the railroad tracks along Route 346 is part of a larger effort by Pan Am Railways to create the “Patriot Corridor” which would connect Albany, N.Y. with the greater Boston, Mass. area.
According to a statement released by Pan Am, the company will partner with Norfolk Southern Railway Company and both companies will have a 50 percent interest in a new railroad company called Pan Am Southern, which will operate the Patriot Corridor.
Pan Am will transfer to Pan Am Southern 155 miles of main line track between Albany, N.Y. and Ayer, Mass. along with 281 miles of secondary lines in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont. According to Pan Am spokeswoman Cynthia Scarano, Norfolk Southern will in turn contribute cash and property valued at $140 million to the project. Of that, $87.5 million will go to upgrades to existing tracks, such as what runs through Pownal and nearby New York.
“With energy prices continuing to rise, the Patriot Corridor will give our customers additional capacity and speed to get their products to market,” said David Fink, Pan Am Railways president in a released statement.
Pan Am operates 2,000 route miles in Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut, New York, and Atlantic Canada. Norfolk Southern Railways is a subsidiary of Norfolk Southern Corporation, a transportation company. It operates 2,100 route miles in 22 states.