Reporting mark | NYSW |
---|---|
Locale |
New York New Jersey Pennsylvania |
Dates of operation | 1881–Present |
Track gauge | 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge |
Headquarters | Cooperstown, New York |
Website | www |
The New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway (reporting mark NYSW) (or New York, Susquehanna and Western Railroad and also known as the Susie-Q or the Susquehanna) is a Class II American freight railway operating over 500 miles (800 km) of track in the northeastern states of New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
It was formed in 1881 from the merger of several smaller railroads. Passenger service in Northern New Jersey was offered until 1966. The New York, Susquehanna and Western was purchased by the Delaware Otsego Corporation in 1980, and became a regional player during the 1980s in the intermodal freight transport business.
The NYS&W operates over 500 miles of track in three states. The railroad uses three main routes, one running from Northern New Jersey to Binghamton, New York and the other two branching north from Binghamton to serve Utica, New York and Syracuse, New York.
The New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway can trace its roots back to the Hoboken, Ridgefield & Paterson Railroad, chartered in 1866 to connect industrial Paterson, New Jersey, with the ports along the Hudson Waterfront opposite New York City at Hoboken. That same year, the New York and Oswego Midland Railroad (NY&OM) was chartered to connect the Great Lakes port at Oswego, New York, with New York City. Several competing companies sprang up in 1867, but the New Jersey Western Railroad (NJW) was the most successful, constructing westward from Paterson and Hawthorne. Cornelious Wortendyke, president of the NJW, signed a lease agreement with DeWitt Clinton Littlejohn of the NY&OM giving his road a through route into New Jersey. Construction on the NY&OM started in 1868 and progressed rapidly. The NJW changed its name to the New Jersey Midland Railway (NJM) in 1870, and construction had stretched from Hackensack, New Jersey, all the way through to Hanford.