I took a recent road trip through New York state along the Southern Tier and was wondering if the line along there is used much. The road bed looked like it was in decent shape, but I didn’t see many trains. What is the main use for this line, and does it go into the New York city vicinity? Thanks,
Greg, Cleveland
The Southern Tier as I know it was part of the former Erie RR from Chicago to Jersey City. From Port Jervis, NY the line goes to Suffern, NY and to Jersey city, NJ. The line from Suffern to Jersey City is now owned by NJ Transit, and it is used by commuter trains. I don’t think the Southern Tier is heavily used west of Port Jervis, NY
A few points to clarify. First off, the Southern Tier Line is the former Erie Railroad Mainline. The Southern Tier Line extends from Suffern west to Buffalo, New York not Port Jervis. The segment between Port Jervis, NY and Binghamton, NY currently sees no through NS trains but has local service. There are triweekly through trains run by the NYS&W on trackage rights from Binghamton to Little Ferry, NJ. NS runs from Suffern to Croxton Yard over rights on NJT. Werst of Binghamton traffic on the Tier is now much more robust with run through CN trains and a pair of General Merchandise trains running to Allentown and Enola respectively. Also there are several through unit coal trains to local coal burning power generating stations. Of course, there is also significant local service and there are CP Rail (D&H) trackage rights trains travelling between Binghamton and Buffalo. So, the west end of the Tier is again a busy line.