Conrail history

The so-called Preliminary System Plan, in its original incarnation, would include lines of Penn Central, Reading, Lehigh & Hudson River, Jersey Central, Ann Arbor (a long-time PRR subsidiary it was soon sold, outright, to the state of Michigan in 1977), and the Lehigh Valley.

In 1978 $1.2 billion more in federal funds was authorized.

The USRA system plan for the company had predicted it would be making a profit by 1979.

From its inception through 1980, Conrail had a cumulative net loss of about $1.5 billion.

L. Stanley Crane assumed the presidency of Conrail at the beginning of 1981, about the time the Reagan administration proposed selling the railroad.

In 1982 Conrail was profitable despite a 20% decline in car loadings.

By 1983 Conrail was the fourth largest freight hauler in the United States.

By 1984 these deferrals would amount to $300 million.

By 1985 the government had spent more than $7 billion to restore Conrail's profitability.

In October 1986 President Reagan signed a bill changing the course of Conrail history by authorizing the sale of its stock to the public.

It netted the government $1.6 billion, plus $300 million of Conrail cash and a return of $2 billion worth of tax credits. It went on sale March 25, 1987, at $28 a share, the largest single initial public stock offering in the history of the New York Stock Exchange.

Two Conrail trains part ways at iconic Horseshoe Curve west of Altoona, Pennsylvania on the former Pennsylvania Railroad main line over the Alleghenies, October 21, 1988.

During its first years as a private company, Conrail had proven itself enough of a money-maker to generate takeover attention, with eyes on the 1989 expiration of takeover protection legislation.

Ironically in the 1990’s NS and CSX engaged in a takeover battle that would have created an unhealthy imbalance in northeastern rail service, the compromise was instead a split of the Conrail system.

By 1995 the Super Seven had become five: Burlington Northern & Santa Fe and Union Pacific west of Chicago, CSX and Norfolk Southern in the Southeast, Conrail in the Northeast — and CR, CSX, and NS between the Allegheny Mountains and Chicago.

15, 1996, that Conrail and CSX planned to merge.

In the spring of 1997, Norfolk Southern Corporation and CSX Corporation agreed to acquire Conrail through a joint stock purchase.

The Surface Transportation Board officially approved the acquisition and restructuring of Conrail on July 23, 1998.

On June 1, 1999, Conrail began operating as a Switching and Terminal Railroad for its owners, NS and CSX, in the three geographical areas of Northern New Jersey, Southern New Jersey/Philadelphia, and Detroit, Michigan.