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The Ohio Rail Development Commission recently approved a $400,000 grant to help fund rehabilitation work on Ashland Railway’s line from Mansfield to Ashland. The short line plans to repair track to increase train speed from 10 mph to 25 mph.
 
The railroad’s industrial development efforts have attracted two new customers on the Mansfield-to-Ashland segment over the past year, said Evan Scurti, director of Ashland Area Council for Economic Development, in a prepared statement. The short line now serves McFarland-Cascade, which uses the railroad to transport telephone poles, and a new Barbasol plant in Ashland.

The upgraded rail line will help promote the Ashland Business Park as a premiere industrial location, said Ashland Mayor Glen Stewart, adding that the park is centrally located between Cleveland, Akron and Columbus.

Ashland Railway interchanges with CSX Transportation, Norfolk Southern Railway and the Wheeling & Lake Erie Railway Co.