Louisville and Indiana Railroad
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| Reporting mark | LIRC |
|---|---|
| Locale | Indiana and Kentucky |
| Dates of operation | 1994– |
| Track gauge | 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge |
| Headquarters | Jeffersonville, Indiana |
The Louisville and Indiana Railroad (reporting mark LIRC) is a Class III railroad that operates freight service between Indianapolis, Indiana and Louisville, Kentucky, with a major yard and maintenance shop in Jeffersonville, Indiana.
The 106-mile (171 km) line was purchased from Conrail in March 1994. Previous to Conrail, the line was owned by Penn Central, and before that, the Pennsylvania Railroad. It serves the cities of Franklin, Sellersburg, Seymour and Columbus, Indiana, and also serves the former Clark Maritime Center, now Port of Indiana, Jeffersonville. In Louisville, the LIRC interchanges with the Paducah and Louisville Railway, CSX Transportation and the Indiana Rail Road, former Canadian Pacific Railway (via trackage rights over CSX's former Monon line). Traffic from them mostly is potash. In Indianapolis, the line interchanges with CSX Transportation at Avon Yard approximately 7 miles west of the Circle City.
The LIRC was briefly home to the Amtrak passenger train Kentucky Cardinal, a failed attempt to capture express business from the United Parcel Service air hub in Louisville. Inconvenient departure and arrival times, coupled with the prevailing 30-mph (50 km/h) speed limit on the LIRC, led to the train's demise in 2003. The former express facility is now run by A&R Transport, which is a plastics transload facility. Plastics make up the majority of the online business with the railroad.
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