The Boise Valley Railroad is a shortline railroad in

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest and Mountain states, Mountain West subregions of the Western United States. It borders Montana and Wyoming to the east, Nevada and Utah to the south, and Washington (state), ...

connecting

Nampa The Namibia Press Agency (NAMPA) is the national news agency of the Republic of Namibia. It was founded in 1987 under the name Namibia Press Association as a SWAPO partisan press agency, and resuscitated after independence under its current name ...

with

Boise Boise ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Idaho. As of the 2020 census, there were 235,685 people residing in the city. Located on the Boise River in southwestern Idaho, it is east of the Oregon border and nor ...

and Wilder. It is owned and operated by

Watco Watco Companies, L.L.C. (Watco) Watco is an American transportation and logistics company based in Pittsburg, Kansas. The company’s core services are freight transportation, material handling and storage, logistics, railcar repair and maintena ...

History

On 23 November 2009, the railroad began operations, running over an line between Wilder and

Caldwell Caldwell may refer to: People * Caldwell (surname) * Caldwell (given name) * Caldwell First Nation, a federally recognized First Nation in southern Ontario, Canada Places Great Britain * Caldwell, Derbyshire, a hamlet * Caldwell, Ea ...

and a 25-mile(40 km) line between

and

, with the two lines connected via

trackage rights Railway companies can interact with and control others in many ways. These relationships can be complicated by bankruptcies. Operating Often, when a railroad first opens, it is only a short spur of a main line. The owner of the spur line may c ...

on the

Union Pacific The Union Pacific Railroad is a Class I freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pacific is the second largest railroad in the United States after BNSF, ...

purchased the line from Idaho Northern & Pacific Railroad. Watco took over operations and leased the line to Union Pacific. Operations for both branches are based at Nampa Yard in Nampa where cars are interchanged to the Union Pacific. As of August 2015, the railroad served around 60 clients and operated once a day on each weekday.

Wilder Branch

The Wilder Branch begins at Caldwell and goes west to Wilder and switches between several packing houses. The branch is 11 miles long.

Boise Branch and Nampa Industrial Lead

The 25 mile Boise Branch goes from Nampa to

Boise Airport Boise Airport (Boise Air Terminal or Gowen Field) is a joint civil-military airport in the western United States in Idaho, south of downtown Boise in Ada County. The airport is operated by the city of Boise Department of Aviation, overseen ...

and is Union Pacific's former main line into Boise. The City of Boise closed the Boise Yard in 1989 but kept the branch active until 1996 when the eastern half was abandoned with the cessation of

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak (; ), is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates intercity rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

's ''

Pioneer Pioneer commonly refers to a person who is among the first at something that is new to a community. A pioneer as a settler is among the first settling at a place that is new to the settler community. A historic example are American pioneers, perso ...

''. BVRR also switches the Nampa Industrial Lead which comes off the Boise Branch at Nampa Junction and goes out to

Amalgamated Sugar Company The Amalgamated Sugar Company is an American sugar beet-refining company run on a cooperative basis. It was founded in 1897 in Ogden, Utah, and is now located in Nampa, Idaho. The company markets its sugar under the White Satin brand. Founding ...

at the end of the branch.

References

External links

Official website
Idaho railroads Watco 2009 establishments in Idaho {{US-rail-company-stub