For tax reasons, B&O didn't officially operate in N.J. But its trains ran there on lines it controlled directly and indirectly. B&O owned a minority but controlling stake in RDG. And RDG owned the majority of CNJ shares.
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| Posted by xBNSFer on February 2, 2016 | |
Actually, the end of B&O freight operations on Staten Island was precipitated in a more drastic fashion than "declining freight business" would suggest. Essentially, Conrail terminated the tariff agreement with the B&O under which it forwarded B&O traffic from Philadelphia to Cranford Jct., cutting the B&O's Staten Island operations off. This occurred soon after Staggers was passed (1981). B&O then (1985) leased the Cranford Jct. (NJ) to St. George (Staten Island) line, along with trackage rights on the MTA Staten Island Railway (or Staten Island Rapid Transit, as it was known previously), to Delaware Otsego (NYSW). When the biggest customer, Proctor & Gamble, closed its plant in 1991, NYSW ended all Staten Island operations, having previously embargoed the portion east of Elm Park in 1989.
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Oh, and while the B&O didn't have a major NJ presence, it did own and operate the line from Cranford to the AK Draw bridge, which connected it to its Staten Island operation and NYC terminals (by barges and tugboats). As noted, however, it did reach this remote operation, which it had no direct connection to, by the "proxy roads" Reading and CNJ.
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Sorry, that should be 1980 for the Staggers Act, not 1981.
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