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1/4/2024
For the second consecutive year, the Reading & Northern Railroad logged double-digit growth in both its freight and passenger excursion operations in 2023.
Based in Port Clinton, Pennsylvania, the R&N handled 37,000 freight cars in 2023, up from 33,000 cars in 2022. The railroad's excursion ridership rose to 320,000 riders in 2023 from 250,000 in the previous year, R&N officials said in a press release.
R&N officials attributed the freight traffic gains to two primary factors: a significant increase in anthracite coal moved out of the Pennsylvania anthracite fields and R&N's new frac sand terminal in Tunkhannock doubled its volume in its second full year of operation.
Those two market segments contribute about half of the R&N's diverse traffic base, company officials. The railroad also handles substantial volumes of forest products, petrochemicals and minerals, food and agricultural products, metals and consumer products.
In addition, R&N owns a warehouse, various transload facilities and a trucking firm that all support its core rail business.
The growth in passenger excursion ridership stemmed from an expansion of services, including the opening of the Wilkes Barre/Scranton Regional Railroad Station in Pittston, as well as increased train starts and equipment.