Reading & Northern set freight, ridership records in 2021

Reading & Northern Railroad (R&N) broke records for freight revenue, freight traffic and excursion passenger ridership in 2021, the company announced yesterday.

Freight revenue rose 10% over 2020 and 2019 levels, fueled by increased traffic and a shift in traffic mix to higher revenue moves, R&N officials said in a press release.

The railroad also earned “significant ancillary revenue” from its warehouse and transloading business, they said.

Forest products led the railroad’s traffic growth for the year, with a 9.6% year-over-year increase in carloads.

While forest products led R&N’s business portfolio in volume and revenue, R&N still focuses much of its attention on outbound moves of anthracite coal. R&N continued its pattern of significant investment in the coal business in 2021, company officials said.

R&N purchased 153 additional coal cars at a cost of over $1.5 million as well as three additional conveyors at a cost of over $600,000. These conveyors are critical to R&N’s strategy of assisting the movement of Pennsylvania anthracite to domestic electric arc furnace (EAF) steel mills, company officials said.

On the ridership front, R&N hosted 225,175 riders in 2021, a 75,000-rider increase since R&N’s pre-pandemic high. The ridership increase was achieved by adding more train trips, equipment and origins.

Also in 2021, R&N acquired from Carbon County a 19-mile rail line connecting R&N’s Lehigh and Reading. The $4.7 million acquisition cost included $1.7 million in track improvements and crossing upgrades at Jim Thorpe. 

R&N, with its corporate headquarters in Port Clinton, Pennsylvania, is a privately held railroad company serving over 70 customers in nine eastern Pennsylvania counties.