2011 Short Line, Regional Railroads of the Year named

Railway Age magazine has named Blacklands Railroad the 2011 Short Line Railroad of the Year, and the Reading & Northern Railroad its 2011 Regional Railroad of the Year. The awards will be presented at the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association’s annual meeting in San Antonio, Tex., Tuesday evening, May 3, 2011.

“This year’s two winners demonstrate that short line and regional railroads are making their impact felt across the United States,” says Railway Age Publisher Robert P. DeMarco. “The business opportunities differ, but the entrepreneurial spirit of the two winners is a shared belief in the economic power and potential railroads of all sizes can offer.”

Sulphur Springs, Tex.-based Blacklands Railroad provides freight rail service on 73 miles of former St. Louis Southwestern (Cotton Belt) railroad between Mt. Pleasant and Greenville, Tex. The majority of this trackage is owned by NETEX, the Northeast Texas Rural Rail District; some trackage is leased from the Union Pacific. Blacklands Railroad recently added 14 additional miles of trackage with the opening of the Henderson-Overton Branch Railroad, operating this portion for the Rusk County (Tex.) Rural Rail District.

Blacklands Railroad, founded in 1999, has interchanges with Union Pacific at Mt. Pleasant, with Kansas City Southern at Sulphur Springs and at Greenville, Tex., and with RailAmerica’s Dallas Garland and Northeastern Railroad, also in Greenville.

Port Clinton, Pa.-based Reading & Northern Railroad, “The Road of Anthracite,” has leveraged eastern Pennsylvania’s heritage role as a coal source to good effect, as well as tapping into the state’s emerging role as a natural gas resource. The regional railroad, with roughly 300 miles of track in seven counties, has interchanges with Canadian Pacific and with Norfolk Southern, as well as with four other short line properties.

No stranger to industry observers, the Reading & Northern, founded in 1983, was a winner in the 2010 American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association (ASLRRA) Marketing Awards competition. Known formally as the Reading Blue Mountain & Northern Railroad Co., the company won Railway Age’s 2002 Regional Railroad of the Year.

Both Blacklands Railroad, the Short Line Railroad of the Year, and the Reading & Northern Railroad, the Regional Railroad of the Year, will be featured in Railway Age’s April 2011 issue.