If You Ask Me / By Martha Knight

Remember when we used to wait, patiently or otherwise, for seemingly endless trains to go by, however long it took. We were stuck there on the grade crossing, staring at the blinking lights or the gate. Sometimes we kids passed the time counting the cars, or calling out the various railroad companies that were represented.

Doesn’t happen so often, these days, does it? We don’t hear that lonesome whistle blow so often. It was a part of the rhythm of life back in the day. When conditions were right we could hear each train sound its warning, or greeting, at five crossings or so as it sped on its way.

Our school bus would stop in Liberty Villa as it took us home, and out would get some kids who lived on the flats between the railroad and the Portage. Often there would be freight cars parked on that siding, or a train would be stopped for something to be detached or connected. So long as the train or segment was sitting still the Knapps were not deterred—they just crawled over or under the couplings and trotted the rest of the way home. I thought it must be a bother to have trains block the way so often in that area.

Liberty Township supervisors and others working toward a major public works project in that area know the feeling. At the moment the latest successor to the Pennsylvania Railroad is blocking the way to being able to finalize plans and go to bid. The funding seems to be in place, most approvals are in hand—but the Western New York & Pennsylvania is obstructing things.

At least that is how it feels to the local officials. WNYP is owned by the Norfolk Southern. The township needs a right-of-way from them so a contractor can tunnel under the tracks, the way they also plan to tunnel under Route 155.

The tunnels they want to drill would be just large enough to put the new water and sewer lines through. It won’t interfere with railroad or highway use, they say.

But the railroad owns a permanent right-of-way, and it wants to make money. So it is demanding $3,000 from the township.

Every year.

The supervisors want the state legislators to do something about this. Just what, I am not quite sure.

The last time something rail connected interfered with township operations was when the Fox production crew blocked off Fogel Crossing and a truckload of hot mix was kept sitting there cooling almost to the point of unusability. The guys in the truck were ready to stop “Unstoppable” in, or on, its tracks.

The supervisors think the railroad owners, whoever they are, have their nerve. This project is being funded by the government, which means by the taxpayers, and by borrowings the water-sewer users (rate payers) will have to pay off in their quarterly sewer bills for years to come. It isn’t as if it is just another corporation, a for-profit company like WNYP or its parent company, dickering with the railroad for a right-of-way. This is a tiny municipality, small potatoes, stretching every dollar, not in the habit of borrowing a lot or being the scene of a major public works project.

The project will help bring more industry and jobs to the area, or that is the hope. It will encourage more development, including residences, and enhance the value of the properties already there (again, a hoped-for result). But those good results are for a few dozen township residents. They aren’t railroad tycoons! Some are retired, some are working stiffs living in mobile homes or in comfortable but not fancy houses. They would like to have “town water and sewer” in their part of the township, as some other parts, mainly Brooklynside, have had for years.

The supervisors think the government gave the railroad a break at some point in its history, and that the railroads are getting some government help now.

I believe rail companies had to obtain charters from states, to build their lines, in at least part of their history. Probably those charters were valuable. I am not clear on whether the rail lines had to pay for them.

Also, I think the federal government bailed out one of the owners of the railroad, in a financially troubled period. I don’t know how much of that has been paid back. But if WNYP or Norfolk owes some government entity something, is it the township?

At one time the Pennsy was the biggest railroad in the U.S. PRR had a budget larger than the federal budget, and was the world’s biggest publicly traded corporation. It paid its shareholders dividends every year for more than 100 years—a record that has yet to be broken.

The rail heyday was waning as trucking gained. In 1968 PRR merged with its archrival New York Central, forming Penn Central Transportation Company. Two years later Penn Central filed for bankruptcy.

Some of the lines were transferred to Conrail in 1976, but Conrail was split in 1999. More than half of its lines went to Norfolk Southern.

A portion of that is the NYPD line that runs northward from Driftwood, through this area and on to Olean and toward Rochester.

Some of us remember when there was passenger service at the Port Allegany depot, just a little stroll from the Greyhound Post House. And we remember when the passenger service stopped but the freight service continued, then when the depot was closed and no trains stopped here other than to interact with sidings.

Conrail was the owner when Port Allegany Borough bought the depot property. The borough had been jousting with the rail company for a while, wanting it to maintain its fencing better. There had been at least two private offers for the depot property shortly before the borough’s preemptive offer: one by a local culinary whiz who wanted to establish a restaurant, the other by a chef and redevelopment guru who wanted to create an arcade with small shops, and a café.

The railroad, by various names and under several ownerships, has played a key role in local industry and our economy. Perhaps, with a community-friendly attitude, it could do so again.

Peace.