Detroit Line (Norfolk Southern)

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The Detroit Line is a railroad line owned and operated by the Norfolk Southern Railway in the U.S. states of Michigan and Ohio. The line runs from near Detroit, Michigan southwest to Toledo, Ohio along a former New York Central Railroad line. Its north end is at Gibraltar, where it becomes the Detroit Line of Conrail's Detroit Shared Assets Area; its south end is at the Chicago Line at Air Line Junction in western Toledo.^[1]

[edit] History

The Detroit, Monroe and Toledo Railroad opened a line from Detroit to Toledo in 1856. The Toledo, Canada Southern and Detroit Railway opened a parallel line, just to the east, in 1873. With the 1930 lease of the Michigan Central Railroad by the New York Central Railroad, both lines were placed under NYC operation.^[2]^[1] The lines passed to Conrail, and were assigned to Norfolk Southern in Conrail's 1999 breakup; they are now used through a directional running setup, in which southbound trains use the old DM&T and northbound trains use the old TCS&D.