A shortline railroad is a small or mid-sized railroad company that operates over a relatively short distance relative to larger, national railroad networks. The term is used primarily in the United States and Canada. In the former, railroads are categorized by operating revenue, and most shortline railroads fall into the Class III or Class II categorization defined by the Surface Transportation Board .
8-623: The Leelanau Transit Company was a short line standard gauge railroad incorporated in 1919 as the successor to the Traverse City, Leelanau, and Manistique Railroad , which was incorporated in 1901 to build a line from Traverse City, Michigan to Northport, Michigan in order to support a carferry service to Manistique on the Upper Peninsula . This line was a project of the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad and completed
16-416: A Class III is a railroad with an annual operating revenue of less than $ 28 million. In Canada , Transport Canada classifies shortline railroads as Class II . There are three kinds of shortlines in the U.S.: handling, switch, and ISS (Interline Settlement System). It was reported in 2009 that shortline railroads employ 20,000 people in the U.S., and own 30 percent of the nation's railroad tracks. About
24-577: A connection from Northport to the main north-south line at Walton Junction via the Traverse City Rail Road Company ; unlike the latter, however, it was never folded into the parent company. Ferry service began in 1903 but was suspended in 1908 following the foreclosure sale of the line the previous year, never to resume; the railroad was recorganized as the Traverse City, Leelanau and Manistique Railway before assuming its final name in 1919 in another reorganization. The line
32-440: A quarter of all U.S. rail freight travels at least a small part of its journey over a short-line railroad. An ever-growing number of shortline operators have been acquired by larger holding companies which own or lease railroad properties in many states, as well as internationally. For example, Genesee & Wyoming controls over 100 railroads in over 40 U.S. states and four Canadian provinces. A consequence of such consolidation
40-602: The Leelanau Scenic Railway , operated on the former Leelanau Transit right-of-way between Traverse City and Suttons Bay from 1989 to 1995. This service ended when a truck hit and destroyed a bridge causing the land to be sold for the construction of the Leelanau Trail . Two of the stations built for the line survive at least in part, and the Suttons Bay station , constructed in 1920, is listed on
48-862: The National Register of Historic Places . Short-line railroad At the beginning of the railroad age, nearly all railway lines were shortlines, locally chartered, financed and operated; as the railroad industry matured, local lines were merged or acquired to create longer mainline railroads. Especially since 1980 in the U.S. and 1990 in Canada, many shortlines have been established when larger railroad companies sold off or abandoned low-profit portions of their trackage. Shortline operators typically have lower labor, overhead and regulatory costs than Class I railroads and therefore are often able to operate profitable lines that lost money for their original owners. Shortlines generally exist for one or more of
56-542: The following reasons: In France, the equivalent of shortlines railroads are the opérateurs ferroviaires de proximité (local railways operators). Because of their small size and generally low revenues, the great majority of shortline railroads in the U.S. are classified by the Association of American Railroads (AAR) as Class III . As defined by the Surface Transportation Board (STB),
64-576: Was leased to the Manistee and North-Eastern Railroad ; the lease was transferred to the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway when it absorbed the M&;NE in 1955. The line remained active at least in part until the 1975, when the final section from Traverse City to Suttons Bay was abandoned. The line north to Northport was taken up in the 1960s. Passenger service was discontinued in 1948. An excursion service,
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