Indiana Rail Road petitions to discontinue trackage rights on former Monon line
By R G Edmonson | June 27, 2017
OPERATIONS Trains Industry Newsletter
INDIANAPOLIS — The Indiana Rail Road has petitioned the Surface Transportation Board to discontinue trackage rights on 72 miles of CSX Transportation tracks between New Albany and Bedford, Ind., effective July 27.
In their filing, company officials write states that no traffic has moved on the line in the past two years. It is also disconnected from any other portion of the railroad since 22.8 miles from Bedford to Crane, Ind., was abandoned in 2011. The line appears on the railroad’s current system map as a CSX line.
Trains News Wire reported in November 2010 that local investigators suspected an arsonist burned a trestle across the White River, just south of Bedford. At the time, CSX decommissioned the line. State officials hoped to purchase the line to stimulate economic development, but the local port authority could not raise the necessary funds.
The Bedford line is the southernmost segment of the former Monon Railroad between Louisville, Ky., and Chicago. The Monon merged into the Louisville & Nashville Railroad in 1971. The L&N eventually became part of CSX.
CSX also has been in indirect control of the Indiana Rail Road since November 1996.
