Mar. 8—Western New York & Pennsylvania Railroad Corp. has discontinued service on approximately 70 miles of track from Saegertown to Jamestown, New York, according to company officials.
Beyond the loss of “a handful” of jobs for Meadville-based railroad employees, the move is expected to have little impact, company President Bob Babcock said, as customers in Meadville and Saegertown will continue to be served from tracks extending south and west.
“We’re not taking any track out, we’re not going to abandon it — we’re just not going to operate on it because there’s no business, honestly. There’s no business,” Babcock said in a phone interview this week. “Between Jamestown and Meadville last year — 70 miles — the total customer volume was three cars. Three — as in one, two, three.”
Federal authorities confirmed the move.
“The railroad has implemented operational changes which resulted (in) personnel reductions,” a Federal Railroad Administration spokesman told The Meadville Tribune in an email.
In contrast to when a portion of track is abandoned, no notification is required when a company simply decides not to run trains on a specific rail line.
The Western New York & Pennsylvania line from Meadville to Franklin and Oil City will remain in operation, according to Babcock.
“We have a route that comes in from Sharon also, so what we did is we just diverted the traffic,” he said. “The traffic from Meadville and Oil City is all going to come in from the west.”
Babcock said that the track from Meadville east to Oil City remains viable thanks to strong customers along the line.
In December, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation awarded the railroad $682,512 to improve a little more than a half-mile of track and a bridge on a railroad spur that serves the Post Holdings Inc. pet food plant in Vernon Township. The company’s matching investment brings the total project cost to just over $975,000.
The rehabilitation will replace about half a mile of rail that is more than a century old with modern rail, officials said at the time. Babcock said the work is expected to take place this year.
In late 2021, the Pennsylvania State Transportation Commission approved $1.1 million in grant funding to rehabilitate approximately 11.5 miles of Western New York & Pennsylvania track between Lottsville and East Columbus — located on the portion of track where service has now been discontinued.
Babcock said that railroad crossings on the out-of-service portion of track would be deactivated following a procedure determined by the state but would remain in place.
Minimal maintenance will continue on the portion of track taken out of service, according to Babcock, and the railroad could be reactivated.
“If we get opportunities that make sense, we’ll open it back up,” he said.
Among the last traffic to come south on the track into Meadville was the Western New York & Pennsylvania C630M, a locomotive built at Montreal Locomotive Works under license from the American Locomotive Co. in July 1968, according to Bernie Hanmore, president of French Creek Valley Railroad Historical Society. The railroad donated the locomotive to the society and brought it into Meadville from Olean, New York, earlier this year.
“Engine 630 is sitting on a siding up at the yard in Meadville,” Hanmore said, explaining that the locomotive can be seen near Meadville Area Sewer Authority on a short portion of track extended from the main line and used to park railroad cars. “It’s maroon — the big one. That’s coming over to our siding as soon as they put a temporary switch in for us.”
Mike Crowley can be reached at (814) 724-6370 or by email at mcrowley@meadvilletribune.com.
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