After the
New York and New England Railroad succeeded merging with the
Newburgh, Dutchess and Connecticut Railroad at
Hopewell Junction en route to the
Fishkill Ferry station, they sought to expand traffic onto the newly built
Poughkeepsie Railroad Bridge in order to move goods to the other side of the Hudson River, and the
Central New England Railway was perfectly willing to provide a connection. The CNE line was originally chartered as the
Dutchess County Railroad in 1889 and ran southeast from the bridge to Hopewell Junction, and was operational on May 8, 1892. The line was absorbed by the CNE in 1907, and eventually merged into the New Haven Railroad in 1927. Passenger service was phased out beginning in the 1930s, the same decade the New Haven Railroad faced crippling bankruptcy. Later financial troubles in the 1950s and 1960s led to its eventual acquisition by
Penn Central Railroad in 1969. Upon taking ownership, the Penn Central began discouraging connecting traffic on the line that paralleled Penn Central routes for the rest of its journey to prevent it from being short-hauled. After 1971 only one train in each direction (for the
Erie Lackawanna) traversed the full line. While the Penn Central did not connect with the old New Haven on the west side of the line, it came close. For a short time in 1969 and 1970, Penn Central ran a daily train between
Cedar Hill Yard in
New Haven, Connecticut and
Potomac Yard in
Alexandria, Virginia, by way of the
Lehigh and Hudson River Railway, which connected with a former
Pennsylvania Railroad line in
Belvidere, New Jersey, 72 miles south of the old interchange with the
New Haven at
Maybrook Yard in
Maybrook, New York. The service ended in a dispute over haulage charges and the traffic was diverted to the longer all Penn Central route through
Selkirk, New York. Ironically, the only reason the
Lehigh and Hudson River was not part of the Penn Central was because Penn Central predecessor, the
Pennsylvania Railroad, had prevented the
New Haven from acquiring it in 1905. ==See also==