Great news recently for the West Virginia Secondary, idled by Norfolk Southern. This is part of Watco’s press release:

PITTSBURG, KS, May 20, 2016 – The Kanawha River Railroad (KNWA), a subsidiary of Watco Transportation Services, LLC (WTS) has reached a definitive agreement with Norfolk Southern Corporation (NS) to lease and increase operations on 309 miles of rail line in Ohio and West Virginia. The lines run from Refugee, Ohio (just southeast of Columbus) to Alloy, West Virginia, and Cornelia, West Virginia, to Mullens, West Virginia. The KNWA plans to begin the process of seeking approval of the transaction from the Surface Transportation Board (STB) today, and expects to begin operations in July of 2016.

“The Watco Team is excited to serve the Customers in Ohio and West Virginia,” said Watco Chief Commercial Officer Ed McKechnie. “Our team is prepared to offer our new Customers in the agriculture, energy and chemical industries the transportation service product they need to move their product to their end Customer.”

KNWA plans to return the entire main line between West Virginia and the Columbus area to daily operation. Norfolk Southern suspended operations on part of the line in Ohio in early 2016 due to declining rail traffic volumes, and rerouted traffic on other routes.