The Post Road Branch is a

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

line owned and operated by

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada ...

in the U.S. state of

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 * '' ...

. The line runs from a junction with

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

's Berkshire Subdivision in Castleton-on-Hudson, New York, northwest to CSX's Hudson Subdivision at Rensselaer, New York, (near Albany) along a former

New York Central Railroad The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Mi ...

line. Freight service is provided by

, who calls it the Post Road Subdivision, 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 ...

. The Boston branch of Amtrak's long-distance '' Lake Shore Limited'' operates over the Post Road Branch, as does the seasonal '' Berkshire Flyer.''

History

The Albany and West Stockbridge Railroad opened the line in 1842 as part of a line between

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the capital city, state capital and List of municipalities in Massachusetts, most populous city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financ ...

and Albany. , May 2004 Edition The line became part of the

Boston and Albany Railroad The Boston and Albany Railroad was a railroad connecting Boston, Massachusetts to Albany, New York, later becoming part of the New York Central Railroad system, Conrail, and CSX Transportation. The line is currently used by CSX for freight. Pas ...

and

through leases and mergers. With the opening of the Hudson River Connecting Railroad in 1924, it became a minor branch, with through freight using the new Alfred H. Smith Memorial Bridge around Albany. On April 30, 1972, Penn Central Transportation removed the track on the Post Road Branch, forcing passenger trains to make a reverse movement along the current Schodack Subdivision. The abandoned line was assigned to

in the 1976 formation of Conrail, and

reopened it on October 28, 1979 with Conrail

for freight. These rights were assigned to

in the 1999 breakup of Conrail.

References

{{Attached KML Amtrak lines CSX Transportation lines Rail infrastructure in New York (state) Boston and Albany Railroad lines

History

See also

References