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. NY&A operates exclusively on Long Island, New York and is connected to the mainland via the Hell Gate Bridge and a car float – the New York Cross Harbor Railroad – from Brooklyn to New Jersey. 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, Yaphank, Southold and elsewhere on the Long Island Rail Road lines which NYA serves. Most of NYA's customers have their own spurs, making the use of team tracks unnecessary. Other occasional products shipped to Long Island via the NYA is bentonite and rock salt. The LIRR and the NYCTA both receive new passenger equipment via the NYA, and ship out old, retired equipment for scrapping by way of the NYA. The NY&A officially took over Long Island Rail Road's freight operations on May 11, 1997. The initial franchise was for 20 years. |