The ('''NYS&W'''), also known as the '''Susie-Q''', is a
Freight Railway that runs from
Bergen ,
Hudson and
Passaic counties in northern
New Jersey northwest through
Binghamton, New York with northern termini in
Syracuse and
Utica . It was formed in
1881 from the merger of several smaller railroads, and provided passenger service until
1966 . The freight opertions continue today, after a reorganization in
1976 that managed to dodge a forced merger into
Conrail , and was purchased by the Delaware Otsego Corperation in
1980 . For a time it was a player in the intermodal business, hauling Sealand and Hanjin containers as part of a land bridge with
Delaware And Hudson and
CSX railroads.
The NYS&W received coal shipments from the
Delaware, Lackawanna And Western Railroad in
Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania until its
1892 expansion with two lines to reach the coal fields directly. They were known as the and the '''Susquehanna Connecting''' railroads, which ran directly into the
Wyoming Valley Anthracite Coal district.
In
1898 , the NYS&W was bought by
J. P. Morgan , who leased the line out to the
Erie Railroad . This arrangement continued until
1937 when bankruptcy of the Erie caused the NYS&W to become independent.
In the post-merger world of the Class I railroads, the NYS&W continues freight operations today with success in the local and construction debris business. When CSX split Conrail with Norfolk Southern in 1999, the two bigger railroads took away all of Susquehanna's stack train business. As a result, the NYS&W is now primarially a local railroad servicing its local customers from Little Ferry, NJ north to the area around
Sparta, NJ .
There are currently connections with three major rail lines.
CSX connects in
Syracuse, New York and
North Bergen, New Jersey ;
Norfolk Southern in
Binghamton, New York and the
Passaic Junction rail yard in
Saddle Brook, New Jersey ; the
Canadian Pacific Railway connects in
Binghamton, New York .
