The Berkshire Subdivision is a
railroad
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...
line owned by
CSX Transportation
CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of track. ...
in the
U.S. state
In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...
s of
and
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
. The line runs from near
Springfield, Massachusetts
Springfield is a city in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, United States, and the seat of Hampden County. Springfield sits on the eastern bank of the Connecticut River near its confluence with three rivers: the western Westfield River, the ...
west to
Schodack, New York
Schodack is a town in Rensselaer County, New York, United States. The population was 12,965 at the 2020 census. The town name is derived from the Mahican word, Escotak. The town is in the southwestern part of the county. Schodack is southeast of A ...
, (near
Albany)
[CSX Timetables: Berkshire Subdivision]
/ref> along a former New York Central Railroad
The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Midw ...
line. Its east end is in Wilbraham, east of Springfield, at the west end of the Boston Subdivision The Boston Subdivision is a railroad line in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. The line runs from Back Bay Station in Boston west to Wilbraham, just east of Springfield. along a former New York Central Railroad line. The line connects with the Nor ...
. Its west end is just east of the Alfred H. Smith Memorial Bridge
The Alfred H. Smith Memorial Bridge is a railroad bridge spanning the Hudson River between Castleton-on-Hudson, New York, Castleton-on-Hudson and Selkirk, New York in the United States.
The bridge is owned by CSX Transportation and was originally ...
, at a junction with the Castleton Subdivision
The Castleton Subdivision is a railroad line owned and operated by CSX Transportation in the U.S. state of New York. The line runs from Schodack northwest to Selkirk along a former New York Central Railroad line. At its southeast end, it junctio ...
and Schodack Subdivision
The Schodack Subdivision is a railroad line owned by CSX Transportation in the U.S. state of New York. The line runs from Stuyvesant north to Schodack along a former New York Central Railroad line. At its south end, it merges with the Hudson Subd ...
. Along the way, the line junctions Amtrak
The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...
's Post Road Branch
The Post Road Branch is a railroad line owned and operated by Amtrak in the U.S. state of New York. The line runs from a junction with CSX Transportation's Berkshire Subdivision in Castleton-on-Hudson, New York, northwest to CSX's Hudson Subdivi ...
(over which CSX has trackage rights
Railway companies can interact with and control others in many ways. These relationships can be complicated by bankruptcies.
Operating
Often, when a railroad first opens, it is only a short spur of a main line. The owner of the spur line may con ...
) in Schodack.
Amtrak operates trains over the Berkshire Subdivision east of the junction with the Post Road Branch. The seasonal ''Berkshire Flyer
The ''Berkshire Flyer'' is a seasonal Amtrak passenger train service between New York City and the Berkshire Mountains in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, via the Hudson Valley. The weekly train departs Penn Station on Friday afternoons during the s ...
'' runs as far as , while the Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
section of the long-distance ''Lake Shore Limited
The ''Lake Shore Limited'' is an overnight Amtrak intercity rail, intercity passenger train that runs between Chicago and either New York City or Boston via two Section (rail transport), sections east of Albany, New York, Albany. The train bega ...
'' follows the line through to its eastern terminus.
History
The Western Railroad opened east of Springfield in 1839, and from Springfield west to the New York state line in 1841. In 1842, the portion of the Boston-Albany line in New York was completed by the Albany and West Stockbridge Railroad
The Boston and Albany Railroad was a railroad connecting Boston, Massachusetts to Albany, New York, later becoming part of the New York Central Railroad system, Conrail, and CSX Transportation. The line is currently used by CSX for freight. Pa ...
. The Hudson River Connecting Railroad
Hudson may refer to:
People
* Hudson (given name)
* Hudson (surname)
* Henry Hudson, English explorer
* Hudson (footballer, born 1986), Hudson Fernando Tobias de Carvalho, Brazilian football right-back
* Hudson (footballer, born 1988), Hudso ...
opened the piece of the current Berkshire Subdivision west of the Post Road Branch junction in 1924.[ , July 2004 Edition] The line became part of the Boston and Albany Railroad
The Boston and Albany Railroad was a railroad connecting Boston, Massachusetts to Albany, New York, later becoming part of the New York Central Railroad system, Conrail, and CSX Transportation. The line is currently used by CSX for freight. Pass ...
, New York Central, and Conrail through leases, mergers, and takeovers, and was assigned to CSX in the 1999 breakup of Conrail.
See also
* List of CSX Transportation lines
CSX Transportation owns and operates a vast network of rail lines in the United States east of the Mississippi River. In addition to the major systems which merged to form CSX – the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad
The Baltimore and Ohio Railroa ...
References
External links
* {{commons category-inline, Berkshire Subdivision
CSX Transportation lines
Rail infrastructure in Massachusetts
Rail infrastructure in New York (state)
Boston and Albany Railroad lines