History of the Lackawanna Railroad
by Krysta CardinaleThe story of the Erie Lackawanna Railroad is incomparable in its evolution and steady decline in the American railway system. Starting off as the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad in the mid-1800s, it merged with the Erie Railroad in 1960 to form the Erie Lackawanna Railway (later Conrail). It saw the devastating effects of the rise of sophisticated Interstate highways and the advancement of air travel, among other innovations. A combination of these effectively put an end to a once vital part of the economy of the eastern United States.
Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad
The Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad Company connected Pennsylvania’s Lackawanna coal valley to New York City, Buffalo and Oswego, NY. Established in 1832, it was originally named the Leggett’s Gap Railroad and remained virtually inactive until 1851. In 1851, its name was changed to the Lackawanna and Western Railroad. The newly named railroad began operating a northbound line from Scranton, PA to Great Bend, near the New York state line on December 20, 1851.
On a parallel plane, the Delaware and Cobb’s Gap Railroad was incorporated in 1850 to build, and run a rail line from Scranton to the Delaware River in the east. It merged with the Lackawanna and Western Railroad even before it had a chance to begin construction on the line. The Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad (DL&W) was born in 1853.
Through the purchase and takeover of various northern New York state railroads, the DL&W, expanded its reach throughout the rest of the 19th century. Eventually its routes stretched to link most of New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Ontario, Canada.
In 1868, the DL&W bought out the Morris and Essex Railroad to connect it to Washington and Jersey City. It continued expanding through New Jersey, reaching the port at Lake Ontario by the late 1800s. It stretched from its main terminal in Scranton through upstate New York to Buffalo, Utica, Syracuse, and Binghamton. It serviced such New Jersey cities as Elizabeth, Jersey City, and Newark, barreled through Pennsylvania at Scranton and Northumberland, and even crossed the border at International Bridge to Ontario, Canada.
On October 17, 1960, the DL&W merged with one of its competitors the Erie Railroad (ER) to form the Erie Lackawanna Railroad (ELR). With this merger, many of the track lines were now unnecessary duplicates and some, like the DL&W main line from Binghamton to Corning was abandoned in favor of Erie’s lines. East of Binghamton, most passenger lines were diverted to DL&W routes. Conrail took over the ELR in a consolidated merger of a number of defunct eastern railroads in1976. When it broke up in 1998, many of its lines (including former DL&W and Erie lines) were taken over by Norfolk Southern and by New Jersey Transit.
Erie Lackawanna Railway
Born out of the 1960 merger of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad and the Erie Railroad, the Erie Lackawanna Railway (ELR) was only in existence for 16 years. During this time it struggled for survival due to the rapidly changing transportation market that hit railways the hardest. Coupled with the burden of years of accumulated debt, the railway took a hit when passengers began progressively turning away from railways in favor of air and car travel. Rail’s freight traffic mainstay suffered with the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway in the late ’50s. The seaway opened up the waterway to freightliners from Europe and Asia, enabling them to access American port cities like Buffalo, Cleveland and Chicago. The DL&W had previously been the carrier for the cargo from ocean ships, even owning its own port on the Hudson River.
Perhaps in anticipation of a merger, the DL&W and ER began consolidating redundant routes in southern New York along the Hudson River in 1956, four years before they became a single entity.
The Lackawanna route had begun to feel the effects of decline as far back as the 1940s, when the traffic of hard coal and cement from Pennsylvania began tapering off. The ER was suffering under the loss of its cash cow, fruit transport, when it was scooped up in the rise of the new Interstate highway system and the trucking industry in the 1950s. Overregulation, competition from highways and waterways, and market saturation were all beginning to bog down northeastern railways in the ’60s. The shutting down of factories in major eastern cities, and the rise of he Asian automobile industry in the ’70s cut deep into the heart of the ELR’s traffic base. Another roadblock was the dated and paralyzing government regulations enacted at the height of rail’s domination at the end of the 19th century. It stated that no railroad (the EL included) could simply abandon long-distance passenger runs, despite them being almost completely taken over by highway and air travel.
The Erie Lackawanna Railroad managed to post profits at the end of the ’60s through intense cost-cutting measures. These measures included the abandonment of duplicate lines, sprucing up its dated equipment, boosting piggyback trailer traffic, and gradually reducing its long-distance passenger services (which stopped completely in 1970).
It received a stroke of luck by taking on the traffic of other struggling lines that it paralleled, and by obtaining a subsidy from the state of New Jersey to update the sagging commuter train service it ran in the NJ-NYC area. The ELR also inked a lucrative deal with UPS in 1970, which launched a five-train-a-day run of intermodal trains between New Jersey and Chicago.
The Erie Lackawanna Railroad was purchased in 1968 by the Norfolk and Western Railway, but went into bankruptcy four years later in 1972 when Hurricane Agnes swept through NY State. The hurricane severely damaged its rail lines, and the cost of rebuilding was simply too much. The completion of Interstate 80, between New Jersey and Pennsylvania, in 1971 nailed the coffin on the operation. It diverted what was left of freight traffic on the railway to the roads.
After initial resistance, and the hope that the company could be salvaged without outside help, the ELR joined in on Consolidated Rail’s (Conrail) bid. The plan was to orchestrate a takeover of many of the east’s bankrupt lines, and the ELR agreed to become one such line in 1975. Many of the ELR’s assets were liquidated in the process to pay off its debts.
This once vital part of the American economy and of American history is still in existence as a commuter rail line in New Jersey. It is operated by NJ Transit, and as a limited freight line in New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. The history of the Lackawanna Railroad illustrates the evolution of the economy at the expense of one of its heritage industries.
