Final System Plan Freight Service Lines Operated by ConRail

Details

• Alternative Title:
  USRA Final System Plan Map: Freight Service Lines Operated by ConRail-Preferred Plan Configuration, July 1975
• Corporate Creators:
  United States Railway Association
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  Abandonment Bankruptcy Bibliographies Economics Financing Maps Marketing Railroads Regional Planning Regional Railroads
• Resource Type:
  Map
• Right Statement:
  Public Domain
• Geographical Coverage:
  United States ; New England ; West North Central States
• Corporate Publisher:
  United States Railway Association
• Abstract:
  This color foldout map was prepared by the United States Railway Association in Washington, D.C., in July 1975 as an accompanying map to Final System Plan for Restructuring Railroads in the Northeast and Midwest Region Pursuant to the Regional Rail Reorganization Act of 1973, Volume I, Parts I and II. Volume I expressly states that a second foldout map accompanying the report shows the ConRail freight-service network. The title and legend of the present sheet positively identify it as that map.
  
  The map depicts the freight-service network proposed for operation by ConRail under the preferred Final System Plan structure. Its legend distinguishes ConRail through- and local-service lines, ConRail trackage rights for through and local service, and ConRail trackage rights for overhead traffic only. The mapped system extends from St. Louis and Chicago through the Midwest, Great Lakes region, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, New England, Maryland, and connecting portions of Canada.
  
  The network shown is the smaller ConRail system that would have remained after the proposed acquisitions by solvent railroads were completed. Most Erie Lackawanna and Reading properties proposed for acquisition by Chessie are therefore absent from ConRail's directly operated network. ConRail is shown retaining selected routes and trackage rights, including overhead rights over portions of the Reading system. In the Philadelphia-Reading corridor, ConRail also retained an independent route over the former Penn Central, originally Pennsylvania Railroad, Schuylkill Branch, identified in the Final System Plan property schedules as the Schuylkill Secondary. This provided a ConRail-controlled connection from Philadelphia to Reading and the retained routes north of Reading, rather than requiring ConRail to depend exclusively on trackage rights over lines associated with the proposed Chessie system. The parallel former Reading main-line corridor was subject to a more complex combination of property assignments and reciprocal operating rights.
  
  Much of the Delmarva Peninsula network is also absent because the Final System Plan proposed that Southern Railway acquire the former Penn Central lines east and south of Wilmington, Delaware, together with the Cape Charles-Norfolk car-float operation. The map should not be interpreted as a Day 1 Conrail map. The preferred structure depended on completion of the proposed acquisitions by Chessie, Southern, and other solvent carriers. Those acquisitions were not completed, and Conrail began operations on April 1, 1976, over a larger network that included many properties omitted from this map.
  
  The map is useful for distinguishing the preferred Final System Plan ConRail network from both the Preliminary System Plan proposal and the larger system ultimately operated by Conrail. It supports research concerning proposed property transfers, trackage rights, competitive rail access, the proposed Chessie and Southern acquisitions, and implementation of the Regional Rail Reorganization Act of 1973.
  
  
• Content Notes:
  United States Railway Association. (1975, July). Final System Plan freight service lines operated by ConRail [Map accompanying Final System Plan, Volume I, Parts I and II].
• Format:
  PDF
• Collection(s):
  US Transportation Collection
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:9bb8a175d3e923def703fe39fe5b59d0658b2658917d2b0fe6f2bb705bdd4295a1d98abc4b996354d5d66bb79af94dabb3727b97d51029b4383b0cab626dcde5
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/92969/dot_92969_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 789.21 KB ]