Staff Reports

Louisville and Indiana Railroad, an affiliate of Chicago-based Anacostia Rail Holdings Co., has acquired the assets and operating rights of the former Southern Indiana Railway, a short line located in the Louisville metropolitan area.

Until 2020, Southern Indiana Railway served customers along its 5.5 miles of line between Speed and a connection with CSX Transportation in Watson. The Surface Transportation Board approved the acquisition April 5, noting with SIND out of service, no current employees are affected by the action.

Louisville and Indiana is a 106-mile short line railroad linking Indianapolis with Louisville. Its connections include CSX, Norfolk Southern, Indiana Rail Road and Paducah and Louisville.

With the acquisition complete, Louisville and Indiana will use Southern Indiana Railway rail assets to enhance LIRC’s existing freight service, including conversion of the SIND engine house to a maintenance-of-way facility and surrounding property to store track material. Other portions of SIND rail infrastructure offer opportunities to expand service to industrial sites.

“We see this as a way to grow our footprint,” LIRC President John Goldman said. “The existing track is maintained to FRA Class 1 standards, and we will consider upgrades and rehabilitation dependent on commercial opportunities we can create.”

Southern Indiana Railway traced its history to the 1905 expansion of the Louisville and Northern Electric Traction Co., an interurban line owned by Chicago utilities magnate Samuel Insull, and the subsequent 1939 sale of a portion of the line to form Southern Indiana Railway.