Vermont Railway - History

History

The Rutland Railway was the only north-south line through western Vermont. A strike shut it down on Sept. 25, 1961. The Government of Vermont purchased the main line south of Burlington, as well as a branch to Bennington, 128.6 miles (207.0 km) total, and the new Vermont Railway, incorporated on Oct. 25, 1963, began operations on Jan. 6, 1964. The company's first president was Jay Wulfson, who came from the Middletown and New Jersey Railroad.

During the early years of the Vermont Railway, a great deal of energy and money was expended replacing the old locomotives and rolling stock the railroad had inherited from the Rutland, buying several locomotives, both new and used, as well as leasing several hundred freight cars. The railroad continued to expand, entering the intermodal business in 1965, and acquiring the Clarendon and Pittsford Railroad in 1972, which gave VTR access to a major limestone plant near Florence, VT. VTR retained the Clarendon and Pittsford name as a separate legal entity operating the acquired trackage. In the late 1970s, despite the deaths of several senior officials, including Wulfson, the railroad earned more than $2 million in revenues for the first time, although net earnings remained much lower, at about $20,000 a year, all of which was put back towards improving the railroad.

In 1982, VTR paid back the State of Vermont for the trackage the State bought in 1964 to allow VTR to begin operations. A year later, VTR bought 23.7 miles (38.1 km) of track between Rutland and Whitehall, New York from the Delaware and Hudson Railroad and assigned it to its Clarendon and Pittsford subsidiary. The track was severely deteriorated at the time of purchase, with track speeds as low as 6 miles per hour (9.7 km/h) over the entire line. During the first years after the purchase, a major rehabilitation project was begun, upgrading the roadbed as well as the track and ties. Since the line was brought up to better standards, Whitehall has become a major interchange point between VTR and the D&H (now Canadian Pacific after their acquisition of the D&H).

In 1997, the Vermont Railway purchased the Green Mountain Railroad, which ran 52.2 miles (84.0 km) from Rutland to Bellows Falls. This led to the formation of an umbrella company, named the Vermont Rail System, which owned both railroads, as well as several other shortlines in Vermont and New York.

VTR plans to construct a new 3.3 miles (5.3 km) spur line in Middlebury, Vermont to serve a quarry. In early 2011, the Vermont Rail System created a new subsidiary railroad called the Otter Creek Railroad to purchase land and construct trackage in preparation for construction to begin in early 2013, with a late 2014 completion date.