The New York and Atlantic Railway (NY&A) is a

short line railroad :''Short Line is also one of the four railroads in the American version of the popular board game Monopoly, named after the Shore Fast Line, an interurban streetcar line.'' A shortline railroad is a small or mid-sized railroad company that opera ...

formed in 1997 to provide freight service over the tracks of the

Long Island Rail Road The Long Island Rail Road , often abbreviated as the LIRR, is a commuter rail system in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of New York, stretching from Manhattan to the eastern tip of Suffolk County on Long Island. With an average week ...

, a public

commuter rail Commuter rail, or suburban rail, is a passenger rail transport service that primarily operates within a metropolitan area, connecting commuters to a central city from adjacent suburbs or commuter towns. Generally commuter rail systems are con ...

agency which had decided to privatize its freight operations. An affiliate of the

Anacostia and Pacific Company Anacostia Rail Holdings Company is a transportation development and consulting firm responsible for the operations of several railroads: *Chicago South Shore and South Bend Railroad *Gulf Coast Switching *Louisville and Indiana Railroad *New York ...

, NY&A operates exclusively on

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United States and the 18 ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

and is connected to the mainland via CSX's line over the

Hell Gate Bridge The Hell Gate Bridge, originally the New York Connecting Railroad Bridge or the East River Arch Bridge, is a steel through arch railroad bridge in New York City. Originally built for four tracks, the bridge currently carries two tracks of Amtr ...

. It also interchanges with New York New Jersey Rail's

car float A railroad car float or rail barge is a specialised form of lighter with railway tracks mounted on its deck used to move rolling stock across water obstacles, or to locations they could not otherwise go. An unpowered barge, it is towed by a t ...

at the 65th Street Yard and US Rail of New York in

Yaphank, New York Yaphank () is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in Suffolk County, New York, United States. The population was 5,945 at the time of the 2010 census. Yaphank is located in the south part of the Town of Brookhaven. It is served by the ...

. Its primary freight yard is

Fresh Pond Junction Fresh Pond Junction is a freight yard in the Ridgewood and Glendale neighborhoods of Queens, New York City. It is operated by the New York & Atlantic Railway, which serves Long Island, New York using tracks owned by the Long Island Rail Road ...

in Queens. The NY&A officially took over Long Island Rail Road's freight operations on May 11, 1997. The initial franchise was for 20 years.

Operations

NYA serves about 80 customers.Kilgannon, Corey. (2019, April 7). ''The Pizza-and-Beer Train: New York City's Hidden Railroad''. The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/07/nyregion/rail-freight-nyc.html Lumber, building products, scrap metal, construction & demolition debris, bio-diesel fuel, food,

beer Beer is one of the oldest and the most widely consumed type of alcoholic drink in the world, and the third most popular drink overall after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches, mainly derived from ce ...

, gravel,

propane Propane () is a three-carbon alkane with the molecular formula . It is a gas at standard temperature and pressure, but compressible to a transportable liquid. A by-product of natural gas processing and petroleum refining, it is commonly used as ...

, chemicals, structural steel, plastics and recyclable cardboard/paper are NYA's main traffic. Occasionally, NYA transports utility poles and electrical transformers to the LIPA facility in Hicksville, which has its own spurs. NYA also moves

municipal solid waste Municipal solid waste (MSW), commonly known as trash or garbage in the United States and rubbish in Britain, is a waste type consisting of everyday items that are discarded by the public. "Garbage" can also refer specifically to food waste ...

in sealed containers on COFC trains. NYA serves

Belmont Park Belmont Park is a major thoroughbred horse racing facility in the northeastern United States, located in Elmont, New York, just east of the New York City limits. It was opened on May 4, 1905. It is operated by the non-profit New York Racin ...

, delivering boxcars, usually

BNSF BNSF Railway is one of the largest freight railroads in North America. One of seven North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 35,000 employees, of track in 28 states, and nearly 8,000 locomotives. It has three transcontinental routes that ...

's, full of feed for the race track's horses. For occasions such as the

Super Bowl The Super Bowl is the annual final playoff game of the National Football League (NFL) to determine the league champion. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966, replacing the NFL Championship Game. Since 2022, the gam ...

or St. Patrick's Day, the NYA transports 30 rail cars of beer per week, with each car holding 3,500 cases. Some NYA customers are located off-line, and make use of NYA's

team track A siding, in rail terminology, is a low-speed track section distinct from a running line or through route such as a main line, branch line, or spur. It may connect to through track or to other sidings at either end. Sidings often have lighte ...

s to receive or ship products. Team tracks are located in

Bay Ridge Bay Ridge is a neighborhood in the southwest corner of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It is bounded by Sunset Park to the north, Dyker Heights to the east, the Narrows and the Belt Parkway to the west, and Fort Hamilton Army Base an ...

, Hicksville, Huntington, Greenlawn, St. James, Islip, Richmond Hill, Maspeth, Speonk, Medford, Southold, and elsewhere on the

(LIRR) lines that NYA serves. Most of NYA's customers have their own spurs, making the use of team tracks unnecessary. A new 28 acre, privately funded transload facility in Yaphank, Brookhaven Rail Terminal, opened in 2011. In 2014, work was underway to build a transload facility for vegetable oil, food products and construction material at NYA's Wheel Spur Yard along

Newtown Creek Newtown Creek, a long tributary of the East River, is an estuary that forms part of the border between the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens, in New York City. Channelization made it one of the most heavily-used bodies of water in the Port of N ...

near

Long Island City Long Island City (LIC) is a residential and commercial neighborhood on the extreme western tip of Queens, a borough in New York City. It is bordered by Astoria to the north; the East River to the west; New Calvary Cemetery in Sunnyside to the ...

. NYA expects the facility to support construction of the replacement

Kosciuszko Bridge The Kosciuszko Bridge is a cable-stayed bridge over Newtown Creek in New York City, connecting Greenpoint in Brooklyn to Maspeth in Queens. The bridge consists of a pair of cable-stayed bridge spans: the eastbound span opened in April 2017, ...

. The yard reopened in 2015. Other products shipped to Long Island via the NYA include

bentonite Bentonite () is an absorbent swelling clay consisting mostly of montmorillonite (a type of smectite) which can either be Na-montmorillonite or Ca-montmorillonite. Na-montmorillonite has a considerably greater swelling capacity than Ca-m ...

and rock salt. NYA carries nearly 1 million tons of

gravel Gravel is a loose aggregation of rock fragments. Gravel occurs naturally throughout the world as a result of sedimentary and erosive geologic processes; it is also produced in large quantities commercially as crushed stone. Gravel is classifi ...

a year from Connecticut

quarries A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to reduce their envir ...

. The LIRR and the

New York City Transit Authority The New York City Transit Authority (also known as NYCTA, the TA, or simply Transit, and branded as MTA New York City Transit) is a New York state public-benefit corporations, public-benefit corporation in the U.S. state of New York (state), New ...

occasionally receive new rail cars, and ship out old, retired equipment for scrapping by way of the Bay Ridge Branch.

Traffic

NYA moved 30,000 carloads in 2018, up from approximately 9,200 when it began operating in May 1997. The majority of its deliveries take place during the night, when fewer commuter trains are running. About 15 percent of freight cars transported by the NYA are floated across New York Harbor from

Jersey City Jersey City is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark.Bay Ridge Bay Ridge is a neighborhood in the southwest corner of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It is bounded by Sunset Park to the north, Dyker Heights to the east, the Narrows and the Belt Parkway to the west, and Fort Hamilton Army Base an ...

on the Brooklyn waterfront. The barge operation is managed by the

Port Authority of New York and New Jersey The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, PANYNJ; stylized, in logo since 2020, as Port Authority NY NJ, is a joint venture between the U.S. states of New York and New Jersey, established in 1921 through an interstate compact authorize ...

, but the number of cars transferred to NYA by that method has been restricted by the use of only one aging barge that has a 14-car capacity. The Port Authority is adding two new barges, each with a capacity of 18 cars, and by 2023 the proposed cross-harbor tunnel is expected to transport 25,000 cars annually, up from 5,000 per year circa 2018.

Crewing

NYA has about 60 employees, including eight train crews. The railroad has substantially different crewing agreements than the Long Island Rail Road, allowing it more flexibility to match the needs of freight customers. NYA has two crewbases, one in

Glendale Glendale is the anglicised version of the Gaelic Gleann Dail, which means ''valley of fertile, low-lying arable land''. It may refer to: Places Australia *Glendale, New South Wales ** Stockland Glendale, a shopping centre * Glendale, Queensland, ...

Queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...

and another near the former LIRR station Pine Aire on the main line, between Deer Park and Brentwood. On a typical weekday, NYA operates six crews.

Equipment

The NY&A operates thirteen locomotives. The roster, as of October 2017, includes the following:

Incidents

March 15, 2015 – 1 car of a NYAR train derailed while entering a siding at

Wyandanch Wyandanch (, ) is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in the Town of Babylon in Suffolk County, New York. The population was 12,990 at the 2020 census. In the past, some or all of Wyandanch was proposed to become part of the never-realiz ...

July 8, 2015 – A NYAR freight train smashed into a tractor trailer after the crossing gates were slow going down in Maspeth, Queens; the truck driver escaped with minor injuries September 15, 2015 – 2 cars of a 16-car NYAR freight train derailed, causing delays on the LIRR at Hicksville

Gallery

File:New York and Atlantic Train Coming Into Jamaica LIRR station.jpg, 268 passing through

Jamaica Station Jamaica station is a major train station of the Long Island Rail Road located in Jamaica, Queens, New York City. With weekday ridership exceeding 200,000 passengers, it is the largest transit hub on Long Island, the fourth-busiest rail station ...

in 2019 File:New York and Atlantic Train at Jamaica LIRR station 1.jpg, 271 at

in 2019 File:NYAR RS40 at Richmond Hill Station.jpg, Newly built 300 at former Richmond Hill Station in 2018 File:New York and Atlantic railroad branch in Farmingdale NY.JPG, Industrial branch in Farmingdale File:New York and Atlantic Railway in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.jpg, Looking East from the intersection of 4th avenue & 66th street in

, Brooklyn File:LIRR_Bay_Ridge_Branch_east_of_8th_Avenue_Brooklyn.jpg, Looking East from the intersection 8th Avenue & 63rd street, in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

Notes

References

External links

New York and Atlantic Railway official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:New York Atlantic Railway New York (state) railroads Companies affiliated with the Long Island Rail Road Rail freight transportation in New York City Railroads on Long Island Railway companies established in 1997 1997 establishments in New York (state)