RAILROAD COMPANY HISTORY
Great Lakes Eastern was formed in October of 1985, after the Federal Government made known their intentions to sell Consolidated Rail Corporation, the railroad company formed in 1976, from several bankrupt railroads in the Northeast.
Conrail's best-known predecessor, the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR), was incorporated in 1846. The PRR began as a line from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, with its first train pulled by a wood-burning "Mifflin" locomotive. In 1854, PRR completed a marvel in rail construction - Horseshoe Curve near Altoona, Pa. Accomplished via a 12-mile track through the Allegheny Mountains, this landmark was the first linking of the East Coast and the Midwest.
The importance of PRR's passenger business continued to grow when, in 1910, the railroad opened Pennsylvania Station to facilitate efficient rail transportation from the island of Manhattan to outlying points. In the 1930s, PRR continued to modernize by electrifying most of its mainline trackage east of Harrisburg, Pa.
During WWII, PRR's freight traffic doubled, passenger traffic tripled, and few would quarrel with the line's moniker "The Standard Railroad of the World." But after the war, PRR began a slow decline resulting from decreased passenger traffic and other economic strains. In the mid-1960s, PRR served some 13 states on 9,500 miles of railroad.
In 1968, PRR tried to halt its deterioration by merging with rival New York Central to form Penn Central. But there was no stopping the effect of soaring costs and declining traffic. Penn Central declared bankruptcy in 1970.
Competition from trucks, shifts in the economy and the effects of a regulated rail industry ultimately took their toll on all the northeastern railroads. One by one, they fell into bankruptcy. First it was Central Railroad of New Jersey, followed by Penn Central, Lehigh Valley, Reading, Erie Lackawanna and, finally, Lehigh & Hudson River.
In 1976, Congress stepped in to create Consolidated Rail Corporation - Conrail - out of the remains of those six railroads. In 1980, relief in the competitive arena was on the way with passage of the Staggers Rail Act, which cleared the way for railroads to compete in the marketplace like other businesses. In 1981, Conrail had the first profitable year in its history.
The Northeast Rail Service Act mandated that Conrail be returned to the private sector when profitability was restored. By 1985, 14 potential buyers had submitted bids for Conrail, and Great Lakes Eastern Corporation was selected as the primary purchaser at a cost of $1.8 billion.
In order to combat some of the cost of the railroad, a strategic plan was formulated that involved Norfolk Southern Corporation and CSX Transportation. That plan shed several lines and branches to the larger Eastern carriers, leaving a strong core network for the Great Lakes Eastern Railroad to operate.
Great Lakes Eastern would go on to reap the prosperity that Conrail had established through its appeal to the major railroads in the East because of its access to the populous Northeast and its busy ports. Then in 2009, GLE and RailAmerica reached an agreement for the acquisition of the New England Central Railroad properties in Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Connecticut. The property was a glove fit for the GLE, who had already well established interchange points in New England with the NECR routes.
The sale would be quickly concluded without contention, as the Vermont Rail System gained valuable trackage rights over the former NECR and Pan Am Railways would have expanded customer access over the route between East Northfield, MA and White River Junction, VT.
Today’s Great Lakes Eastern is a Class I railroad, stretching more than ten-thousand miles through main, branch, secondary, and industrial lines.