Louisville & Indiana Railroad (LIRC) has purchased the assets and operating rights of the former Southern Indiana Railway (SIND) in the US.
SIND is a short line located in the Louisville metropolitan area.
Up to 2020, SIND provided services to customers along its 5.5 miles of line between Speed and a connection with CSX Transportation at Watson of Indiana.
This April, the Surface Transportation Board gave its nod to the acquisition. The board said that SIND was out of service and existing employees are not impacted by the deal.
LIRC president John Goldman said: “We see this as a way to grow our footprint.
“The existing track is maintained to FRA Class 1 standards, and we will consider upgrades and rehabilitation dependent on commercial opportunities we can create.”
LIRC is a 106-mile short line railroad, which connects Indianapolis with Louisville. It has connections with CSX, Norfolk Southern, Indiana Rail Road, and Paducah & Louisville.
SIND rail assets will be used by Louisville and Indiana for the improvement of LIRC’s existing freight service.
It will include the transformation of the SIND engine house to a maintenance-of-way facility as well as surrounding property to store track material.
Other portions of SIND rail infrastructure will be used for the expansion of service to industrial sites.
Anacostia stated that “Southern Indiana Railway traced its history to the 1905 expansion of the Louisville & Northern Electric Traction Company, an interurban line owned by Chicago utilities magnate Samuel Insull, and the subsequent 1939 sale of a portion of the line to form Southern Indiana Railway, which remained in operation until 2020.”
