Kankakee Belt Route - Today

Today

Today, the Norfolk Southern operates the Kankakee Belt Route (ex-Conrail, ex-NYC, Kankakee Belt Line). The Kankakee Belt Route sees around eight to ten trains daily, from the BNSF (old AT&SF main line) at Streator, Illinois to Norfolk Southern Railway interchanges and facilities in Indiana. It still serves as a Chicago bypass.

The west end of this Norfolk Southern Line is now at the former Illinois River bridge at DePue. This lift bridge at DePue has been removed, and much of the track north to Ladd has been removed. Illinois Railway still uses a small portion of the track between Depue and Ladd to serve industry in Ladd and as storage. The track between Ladd and Zearing still exists as a branch line operated by Illinois Railway between Zearing and La Salle.

The east end of the Kankakee Belt towards South Bend is unused except for the local trackage around South Bend. NS operates the local trackage of the Kankakee Belt in South Bend in conjunction with their operations of the former New Jersey, Indiana, and Illinois Railroad, a Wabash subsidiary, and the Vandalia line, a former PRR route from Logansport. Since the demise of Studebaker and Singer, these lines are lightly used with no more than five customers total. The track between here and the NIPSCO plant in Wheatfield was removed in 1983.

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