| Louisville and Indiana Railroad | |
|---|---|
| Reporting mark | LIRC |
| Locale | Indiana and Kentucky |
| Dates of operation | 1994– |
| Track gauge | 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) (standard gauge) |
| Headquarters | Jeffersonville, Indiana |
The Louisville and Indiana Railroad (reporting mark LIRC) is a Class III railroad that operates freight service between Indianapolis, Indiana and Louisville, Kentucky, with a major yard and maintenance shop in Jeffersonville, Indiana.
The 106-mile (171 km) line was purchased from Conrail in March 1994. Previous to Conrail, the line was owned by Penn Central, and before that, the Pennsylvania Railroad. It serves the cities of Franklin, Sellersburg, Seymour and Columbus, Indiana, and also serves the former Clark Maritime Center, now Port of Indiana, Jeffersonville. In Louisville, the LIRC interchanges with the Paducah and Louisville Railway, CSX Transportation and the Indiana Rail Road, former Canadian Pacific Railway (via trackage rights over CSX's former Monon line). Traffic from them mostly is potash. In Indianapolis, the line interchanges with CSX Transportation at Avon Yard approximately 7 miles west of the Circle City.
The LIRC was briefly home to the Amtrak passenger train Kentucky Cardinal, a failed attempt to capture express business from the United Parcel Service air hub in Louisville. Inconvenient departure and arrival times, coupled with the prevailing 30-mph (50 km/h) speed limit on the LIRC, led to the train's demise in 2003. The former express facility is now run by A&R Transport, which is a plastics transload facility. Plastics make up the majority of the online business with the railroad.
CSX negotiated trackage rights over portions of the LIRC in 2004. This enabled CSX to abandon a portion of former Baltimore and Ohio Railroad trackage from New Albany, Indiana to Jeffersonville, and access the remainder of the line to Charlestown, Indiana and the former Indiana Ammunition Plant using LIRC trackage over its Ohio River bridge. Additionally, CSX has used rights over the LIRC as far north as Seymour, where it connects with another former B&O line from Cincinnati, Ohio to St. Louis, Missouri. These trains have been used to bypass a congested CSX line directly between Cincinnati and Louisville.
The line's power includes GP39-2, GP38-2, and GP11s. There also is a GP16 on the property.
Road trains are:
CA: Day Train from Columbus to Avon Yard and back
CJ: Night train from Columbus to Jeffersonville and back.
Columbus Local: Runs from Columbus and does North work. Also switches industries on the old Madison Railroad line in South Columbus. Most notable is the large Amcor P.E.T. Packaging facility in Franklin, Indiana.
JS3- Jeffersonville Yard Switcher. Switches inbound and outbound CJ train. Builds NS cut for the Transfer later in the day. Builds CSXT cut that their local train picks up.
Transfer: Which runs from Jeff Yard to Clark Maritime Center, Norfolk Southern Railway interchange in Louisville, Kentucky, . Also does industry work in Louisville.
Colgate: Switches industries on the Dutch Lane Runner in Jeffersonville.
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