COOPERSTOWN – United States Senator Charles Schumer is pushing for a short-line rail tax credit that will make it easier for New York based railroad companies to grow and maintain their operation.

Schumer visited the New York Susquehanna and Western (NYS&W) headquarters in Cooperstown on Thursday to announce his efforts to restore and extend federal tax credits for short-line operators that expired on Jan. 1. The senator's “Short Line Railroad Rehabilitation and Investment Act” would restore and extend tax credits to short-line railroads, like NYS&W, for infrastructure repairs through 2016.

According to NYS&W, the tax credit would greatly benefit the company in maintaining its 400 miles of track in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, including its Utica Maine Line in Chenango County. That line which connects Chenango County to a larger trunk line in Binghamton has been inoperable since being damaged by heavy flooding in 2006 and further damaged by flooding again in 2011.

“The New York Susquehanna and Western Railroad has numerous opportunities for growth and development, but only if they have the capital to make needed infrastructure improvements,” said Schumer.

The short-line tax credit is valued at 50 percent the cost of track maintenance and improvements, up to $3,500 per mile. NYS&W saved over $7.5 million over the course of the tax credit before it expired at the beginning of the year. If that credit is renewed, the company proposes a $2.5-3 million increase in infrastructure improvements through 2016.

“That's a significant investment,” added Schumer, noting that the credit also benefits other short-line operators throughout the state. “There are scores of railroads, all the same, that connect different parts of more rural New York either directly to the Port of New York, or to the bigger trunk lines that go from Buffalo to Albany or the others that go across the Southern Tier to Binghamton.”