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Next year, Buffalo & Pittsburgh Railroad Inc. (BPR) expects to revive a 16.8-mile Pennsylvania line that’s been inactive for a decade. The 280-mile regional recently filed an exemption notice with the Surface Transportation Board to acquire the Creekside-to-Homer City line from CSX Transportation.

Between 1988 and 1993, BPR leased the line from CSXT. Because of declining traffic, the railroads jointly received STB approval in 1993 to discontinue operations on the line.

In June 2004, BPR expects to begin serving a Homer City utility, which will require 60 to 65 coal trains (40 carloads per train) a year.

The regional plans to rehabilitate the line – subject to a trackage rights agreement with CSXT — by replacing rail and ties, surfacing track, removing brush and renewing a crossing. The agreement would include rights to an adjoining Cloe-to-Ridge Branch Junction, Pa., line leased by Norfolk Southern Railway, which would enable BPR to access the Homer City line.