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Saratoga and North Creek Railway L.L.C. recently filed an exemption notice with the Surface Transportation Board (STB) to operate a 29.7-mile line, known as the Tahawus Line, between North Creek and Newcomb, N.Y.

The private track is owned by NL Industries Inc., which plans to sell the line to Saratoga and North Creek in the near future, according to the STB filing. The short line plans to provide common-carrier rail service over the line connecting to its existing track at North Creek and extending to a connection with Canadian Pacific in Saratoga Springs. The transaction could be consummated by late November, according to the filing.

Saratoga and North Creek is owned by the San Luis & Rio Grande Railroad, a subsidiary of Permian Basin Railways Inc., which in turn is owned by Iowa Pacific Holdings L.L.C. Permian Basin and Iowa Pacific formed Saratoga and North Creek to operate the entire Tahawus Line between Newcomb and Saratoga Springs. In two previous STB proceedings, the board authorized the short line to operate between Saratoga Springs and North Creek.

Meanwhile, RailAmerica Inc. subsidiary railroads last month handled 71,418 carloads, down 1.9 percent compared with October 2010 volume. Same-railroad carloads declined 2.6 percent for the company, which owns 43 regionals and short lines in the United States and Canada.

Seven out of 12 commodity groups posted gains, led by motor vehicles (up 41.5 percent to 1,340); waste and scrap materials (up 10.1 percent to 5,483); coal (up 7.8 percent to 13,926) and metallic ores/metals (up 7.3 percent to 6,388).

However, petroleum carloads plunged 18.9 percent to 2,762; chemical carloads fell 13.8 percent to 7,346; agricultural product carloads dipped 12.6 percent to 10,555; and pulp, paper and allied product carloads decreased 7.3 percent to 4,899. Petroleum carloads primarily declined in the West and Northeast regions, chemical carloads mostly dropped in the Midwest and Northeast regions, and agricultural product carloads predominantly fell in the Midwest and Central regions, RailAmerica officials said in a prepared statement.

Genesee & Wyoming Inc.’s (GWI) subsidiary railroads reported October carloads totaling 84,331 units, up 14.2 percent year over year. Same-railroad carloads rose 2.4 percent for the company, which owns 64 regionals and short lines in the United States, Australia, Canada, Netherlands and Belgium.

Carload gains primarily were driven by higher minerals and stone traffic — especially salt shipments in the New York/Pennsylvania region — stronger construction aggregates traffic in the Ohio region and increased metals traffic, including steel and scrap shipments in the Southern region, GWI officials said in a prepared statement.