The Erie West Subdivision is a

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

line owned by

CSX Transportation CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad company operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. Operating about 21,000 route miles () of track, it is the lead ...

in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

s of

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

and

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

. The line runs from

Derby, New York Derby is a hamlet in Erie County, New York, United States. It is the postal address for much of the town of Evans, within which Derby is fully contained. The Derby ZIP code is 14047, and includes the neighborhood of Highland-on-the-Lake. Derby ...

southwest along the shore of

Lake Erie Lake Erie ( ) is the fourth-largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and also has the shortest avera ...

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–United States border, Canada–U.S. maritime border ...

, along the former

New York Central Railroad The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected New York metropolitan area, gr ...

main line. At its east end (east of downtown Buffalo), the Erie West Subdivision becomes the Buffalo Terminal Subdivision; at its west end (east of downtown Cleveland), it becomes the

Cleveland Terminal Subdivision The Cleveland Terminal Subdivision is a railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, ...

. This subdivision is also known as the Great Lakes Service Lane.

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 ''

Lake Shore Limited The ''Lake Shore Limited'' is an Amtrak Long Distance, overnight passenger train operated by Amtrak between Chicago and the Northeastern United States, with sections to New York City and Boston. The central segment of the route runs along the s ...

'' uses the Erie West Subdivision.

History

The line was built by the Cleveland, Painesville and Ashtabula Railroad and opened in 1852. Through mergers, leases, and takeovers, it became part of the

Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway The Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway, established in 1833, and sometimes referred to as the Lake Shore, was a major part of the New York Central Railroad's Water Level Route from Buffalo, New York, Buffalo, New York, to Chicago, Illinoi ...

, and

Conrail Conrail , formally the Consolidated Rail Corporation, was the primary Class I railroad in the Northeastern United States between 1976 and 1999. The trade name Conrail is a portmanteau based on the company's legal name. It continues to do busine ...

. When Conrail was broken up in 1999, the main line east of Cleveland, including the Erie West Subdivision, was assigned to CSX. In 2007 in

Painesville, Ohio Painesville is a city in Lake County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Located along the Grand River (Ohio), Grand River, it is a northeast suburb of Cleveland. Its population was 20,312 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Pa ...

on this line, a major freight train derailment occurred resulting in the spill of

ethanol Ethanol (also called ethyl alcohol, grain alcohol, drinking alcohol, or simply alcohol) is an organic compound with the chemical formula . It is an Alcohol (chemistry), alcohol, with its formula also written as , or EtOH, where Et is the ps ...

and a large fire. In 2010, its eastern terminus was extended to Buffalo when the Lake Shore Subdivision was transferred from the

Albany Division The Albany Division is a railroad division operated by CSX Transportation in the U.S. states of Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York (state), New York and Pennsylvania. The Albany Division comprises 28 subdivisions. Subdivisions list The subdi ...

to the Great Lakes Division and absorbed.

References

https://www.openrailwaymap.org/ CSX Transportation lines Rail infrastructure in Pennsylvania Rail infrastructure in Ohio Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway lines {{Ohio-transport-stub

History

See also

References