- Terminal railroad
A terminal railroad (or terminal railway) is a
railroad company in theUnited States that owns no cars of its own and transports only the railroad cars of other companies. [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=NGU8AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA802&dq=%22Terminal+Railroad%22+definition&lr= Judicial and statutory definitions of words and phrases. Second series West Publishing Company - St. Paul, Minnesota - 1914] ]With deregulation of railroads in the 1970s, some railroads that were originally strictly terminal railroads now have their own cars to provide pickup and delivery service between line-haul railroads. [ [http://trains.com/trn/glossary/default.aspx?list=4&fl=t Glossary Of Common Railroad Terms - trains.com - Retrieved September 4, 2008] ]
Terminal railroads serve a specific train terminal. They are frequently set up and owned by a consortium of competing railroads in order to facilitate traffic around the terminal on a neutrally-owned system of tracks and
Switchers . Terminal railroads frequentlly built and ownedUnion station s. Since their mission is only to facilitate traffic in the immediate vicinity of the terminal they areClass III railroad s.The biggest terminal railroad in the United States is the
Belt Railway of Chicago which owns 28 miles of mainline track and 300 miles of switching track. TheKansas City Terminal Railway owns 85 miles of track and bridges and builtUnion Station (Kansas City) . TheTerminal Railroad Association of St. Louis owns theMerchants Bridge andMacArthur Bridge (St. Louis) across theMississippi River and builtUnion Station (St. Louis) .With rail consolidation and closing of lines since the 1970s some entities in cities that have been abandoned by the trunk lines set up terminal railroads to connect to the trunk line.
IRS Definition
The
Internal Revenue Service recognizing the cooperative nature of the railroad provides special tax incentives for the railroads which meets its definition.The IRS defines a terminal railroad as "a domestic railroad corporation which is not a member, other than as a common parent corporation, of an affiliated group...all of the shareholders of which are rail carriers " and "the primary business of which is the providing of railroad terminal and switching facilities and services to rail carriers." [ [http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/uscode26/usc_sec_26_00000281----000-.html U.S. Tax Code (2006) TITLE 26 > Subtitle A > CHAPTER 1 > Subchapter B > PART X > § 281] ]
ee also
*
Joint railway - the name for the arrangement in theUnited Kingdom .References
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