The was a freight bypass around southern
Cleveland, Ohio on the
New York Central Railroad 's
Lake Shore And Michigan Southern Railway system. It is now owned and used by
CSX .
The Cleveland Short Line Railway was chartered
November 24 ,
1902 . The first section opened
February 24 ,
1910 , from the
Lake Shore And Michigan Southern Railway at
Rockport , southwest of Cleveland, to the
Lake Erie And Pittsburgh Railway (jointly owned by the New York Central and
Pennsylvania Railroad s) at
Marcy , southeast of Cleveland. The rest of the line, from Marcy to the LS&MS at
Collinwood , northeast of Cleveland, opened on
July 1 ,
1912 . In
1915 the company was merged into the
New York Central Railroad , a year after the same was done with the LS&MS, and kept its name as the .
The line became part of
Penn Central in
1968 and
Conrail in
1976 . By the time of the Conrail breakup in
1998 , the majority of trains through Cleveland used the original
Lake Shore And Michigan Southern Railway line through downtown. Of those that used the bypass, over half only used it west of the former
Pennsylvania Railroad 's
Cleveland And Pittsburgh Railroad (then Conrail's Cleveland Line). With the breakup,
Norfolk Southern acquired the old main line through and west from downtown, up to the Cleveland Line split.
CSX got the bypass, except at the west end, west of the crossing with the old
Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago And St. Louis Railway main line (at
Short Line Junction ), where Norfolk Southern uses it to access the old CCC&StL to downtown.
Reciprocal Trackage Rights are given by each company to the other in case one of the routes is blocked.
The Cleveland Short Line east of Short Line Junction is now CSX's , and is part of their main
New York City -
Chicago route.
