Reporting mark NYA Headquarters Glendale, Queens Locale Long Island | Dates of operation 1997 (1997)–present Founded 1996 | |
Track gauge 4 ft 8 ⁄2 in (1,435 mm) Website www.anacostia.com/railroads/nya Parent organization Anacostia Rail Holdings Company | ||
The New York and Atlantic Railway (NY&A) (reporting mark NYA) is a short line railroad formed in 1997 to provide freight service over the tracks of the Long Island Rail Road, a public commuter rail agency which had decided to privatize its freight operations. An affiliate of the Anacostia and Pacific Company, NY&A operates exclusively on Long Island, New York and is connected to the mainland via CSX's line over the Hell Gate Bridge. It also interchanges with New York New Jersey Rail's car float at the 65th Street Yard and US Rail of New York in Yaphank, New York. Its primary freight yard is Fresh Pond Junction in Queens. The NY&A officially took over Long Island Rail Road's freight operations on May 11, 1997. The initial franchise was for 20 years.
Contents
Operations
Lumber, building products, scrap metal, construction & demolition debris, bio-diesel fuel, food, beer, gravel, propane, chemicals, structural steel, plastics and recyclable cardboard/paper are NYA's main traffic. Occasionally, NYA transports utility poles and electrical transformers to the LIPA facility in Hicksville, which has its own spurs. NYA also moves municipal solid waste in sealed containers on COFC trains. NYA serves Belmont Park, delivering boxcars, usually BNSF's, full of feed for the race track's horses.
Some NYA customers are located off-line, and make use of NYA's team tracks to receive or ship products. Team tracks are located in Bay Ridge, Hicksville, Huntington, Greenlawn, St. James, Islip, Richmond Hill, Maspeth, Speonk, Medford, Southold, and elsewhere on the Long Island Rail Road lines that NYA serves. Most of NYA's customers have their own spurs, making the use of team tracks unnecessary. A new 28 acre, privately funded transload facility in Yaphank, Brookhaven Rail Terminal, opened in 2011.
In 2014, work was underway to build a transload facility for vegetable oil, food products and construction material at NYA's Wheel Spur Yard along Newtown Creek near Long Island City. NYA expects the facility to support construction of the replacement Kosciuszko Bridge.
Other products shipped to Long Island via the NYA include bentonite and rock salt. The LIRR and the NYCTA occasionally receive new rail cars, and ship out old, retired equipment for scrapping by way of the NYA.
Traffic
The NYA moved 28,094 carloads in 2013, up from approximately 9,200 when it began operating in May 1997.
Crewing
The NY&A has substantially different crewing agreements than the Long Island Rail Road, allowing it more flexibility to match the needs of freight customers. NY&A has two crewbases, one in Glendale, Queens and another near the former LIRR station Pine Aire on the main line, between Deer Park and Brentwood. On a typical weekday, NY&A operates six crews.
Equipment
The NY&A currently operates twelve diesel locomotives, most of which were built between 1976 (GP38-2) and 1977 (MP15AC, SW1001). The roster includes the following locomotives: