For the second year in a row Pennsylvania\u2019s largest privately-owned railroad reported double digit growth in both its freight and passenger excursion operations.\u00a0 The Port Clinton based railroad eclipsed 37,000 freight cars handled over its system, up from 33,000 cars\u00a0 \u00a0in 2022. Its excursion ridership went from 250,000 riders in 2022 to over 320,000 riders in 2023.\u00a0 The growth in freight traffic was due to two primary factors. First, Reading and Northern reported a
\nsignificant increase in anthracite coal moved out of the Pennsylvania anthracite fields as the railroad\u00a0 \u00a0handled over one million tons of anthracite coal moved for the first time in its 33-year history. Second,\u00a0 Reading and Northern\u2019s new frac sand terminal in Tunkhannock doubled its volume in its second full\u00a0 year of operation. These two market segments contribute about half of Reading and Northern\u2019s diverse\u00a0 traffic base as the railroad also handles substantial volumes of forest products, petrochemicals and\u00a0 minerals, food and agricultural products, metals, and consumer products. In addition, Reading and\u00a0 Northern owns a warehouse, various transload facilities and a trucking firm that all support its core rail\u00a0 business.<\/p>\n
The growth in passenger excursion ridership was a result of significant expansion of new services,\u00a0 especially the opening of the new Wilkes Barre\/Scranton Regional Railroad Station in Pittston, as well as\u00a0 increased train starts and equipment.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cIt is fitting that in his 40th year in the railroad business, Andy Muller, Jr., our owner and CEO, would be\u00a0 named one of the innovators in the railroad industry. His accomplishments over the last 40 years are\u00a0 noteworthy and the railroad\u2019s record-breaking performance in 2023 is further evidence that his\u00a0 management philosophy works. Take care of your employees, focus on the customers, and constantly invest in the business. Over the last three years Andy has invested heavily in the anthracite coal, frac sand and passenger business and it is no surprise that is where our growth has occurred.\u201d, said Wayne\u00a0 Michel, Reading and Northern President.<\/p>\n
Reading & Northern Railroad, with its corporate headquarters in Port Clinton, is a privately held railroad\u00a0 company serving over 80 customers in nine eastern Pennsylvania counties (Berks, Bradford, Carbon,\u00a0 Columbia, Lackawanna, Luzerne, Northumberland, Schuylkill, and Wyoming). It has expanded its\u00a0 operations over the last 40 years; and now handles nearly 40,000 carloads of freight (which removes\u00a0 over 200,000 trucks from the highway), while its Passenger Department handles 300,000 riders annually. Reading & Northern operates its freight and steam- and diesel-powered passenger excursions\u00a0 over 400 miles of track, owns almost 1,800 freight cars, and employs over 350 dedicated people.\u00a0 Reading & Northern has been repeatedly honored as one of the premier railroads in the nation,\u00a0 including being named Regional Railroad of the Year in 2020 by Railway Age magazine<\/p>\n
-via Press Release<\/em><\/p>\n The post Reading & Northern Railroad Smashes All Records Again<\/a> appeared first on Railpace Newsmagazine<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For the second year in a row Pennsylvania\u2019s largest privately-owned railroad reported double digit growth in both its freight and passenger excursion operations.\u00a0 The Port […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3433,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[713,47],"tags":[11],"class_list":["post-3432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-canada","category-rail-news","tag-usa"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3432\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}