Southern Tier Line

ServiceTypeFreight railSystemNorfolk SouthernOperator(s)TechnicalNumber of tracks1-2Track gauge4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge

Route map

Legend mi Buffalo Terminal Subdivision 421.8 Ebeneezer Industrial Track CPR Buffalo Yard Black Rock branch 415.6 Bison Yard 415.4 Depew, Lancaster and Western Railroad 414.5 Depew 413.2 Lancaster 398.8 Darien Center 392.6 Attica 371.2 Rock Glen Rochester and Southern Railroad 368.3 Silver Springs 365.3 Castile Genesee Arch Bridge 355.3 Dalton 337.0 Arkport Western New York and Pennsylvania Railroad 331.2 Hornell 301.2 Addison Wellsboro and Corning Railroad 292.9 Gang Mills Corning Industrial Track Cohocton River 290.8 B&H Rail Corporation 292.0 Painted Post 290.9 Corning 290.5 Corning Secondary 283.2 Big Flats Horseheads Industrial Track 276.9 Horseheads 272.6 Elmira Chemung River 260.0 Chemung Chemung River 255.2 Waverly Lehigh Secondary Ithaca Secondary Owego and Harford Railway 236.0 Owego 227.8 Campville 222.6 Endicott Vestal Industrial Track 214.0 Binghamton Syracuse Main Line Sunbury Line 213.0 Norfolk Southern Railway Central New York Railroad 205.5 Kirkwood 199.8 Great Bend Susquehanna River 191.5 Susquehanna 189.8 189.5 Starrucca Viaduct Delaware and Hudson Railway 176.0 Deposit West Branch Delaware River 163.0 Hancock East Branch Delaware River 135.2 Callicoon 130.0 Cochecton 121.4 Narrowsburg 117.8 Delaware River 110.5 Lackawaxen River The Stourbridge Line 110.0 Lackawaxen 106.1 Shohola 90.8 Delaware River 88.0 Central New York Railroad Metro-North Railroad 87.5 Port Jervis 87.2 Port Jervis 86.4 Neversink River Original line Otisville tunnel 73.8 Otisville 69.3 Original line 76.4 Old main line 74.2 Crawford Industrial Track 71.6 Middletown–Town of Wallkill 67.1 Wallkill River Walden Secondary 65.6 Campbell Hall 65.5 Otter Kill 63.1 Hudson Secondary 61.6 Otter Kill 55.5 Salisbury Mills–Cornwall 55.1 Moodna Viaduct 45.0 Old main line 44.9 Harriman 37.2 Tuxedo 34.5 Sloatsburg Hillburn Yard 31.3 Metro-North Railroad NJ Transit Suffern Industrial Track 30.5 Suffern NJ Transit Main Line This diagram: view talk edit

The Southern Tier Line is a railroad line owned and operated by the Norfolk Southern Railway in the U.S. states of New York and Pennsylvania. The line was built by the Erie Railroad and its predecessors and runs from Buffalo, New York, to Suffern, New York. From its east end, NS has trackage rights south on the New Jersey Transit Main and Bergen County Lines to Conrail's North Jersey Shared Assets Area.

From Port Jervis to Binghamton, the line is leased to and maintained by the Central New York Railroad, part of the Delaware Otsego Corporation. It junctions with the Lake Erie District at its west end. Along the way it meets the Corning Secondary at Corning, New York. The Metro-North Railroad leases the line from Suffern to Jervis and operates the Port Jervis Line commuter rail service.

The oldest piece of the line, from Suffern to Newburgh Junction in Woodbury, New York, opened in 1841 as part of the New York and Erie Rail Road.^[1] Extensions opened to Port Jervis and Binghamton in 1848,^[2] Owego in 1849,^[3] and Dunkirk (leaving the Southern Tier Line at Hornell) in 1851.^[4] At the Buffalo end, the Attica and Buffalo Railroad opened from Buffalo east to Attica in 1842,^[5] but was part of the New York Central Railroad system until 1852, when it was sold to the Buffalo and New York City Railroad east of Depew. Also in 1852, the Buffalo and New York City Railroad built southeast from Attica to Hornell and west from Depew to Buffalo.^[6] The entire line became part of the Erie Railroad through leases and mergers.

A small part of the line, from East Corning west through Corning to Painted Post, is not the former Erie but the former Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad, opened in 1882 by the New York, Lackawanna and Western Railroad.^{[citation needed]} After the Erie and Lackawanna merged to form the Erie-Lackawanna Railroad, that portion of the former Erie was abandoned and traffic was rerouted to the ex-Lackawanna.^{[citation needed]} The EL was taken over by Conrail in 1976, and in the 1999 Conrail breakup the Southern Tier Line was assigned to Norfolk Southern.

Norfolk Southern leased the section between Suffern and Port Jervis to the Metro-North Railroad on March 31, 2003.^[7] It leased the section between Port Jervis and Binghamton to the Central New York Railroad on December 31, 2004.^[8]