CINCINNATI — The city of Cincinnati’s sale of the Cincinnati Southern Railway to Norfolk Southern has been completed.
Paul Muething, president of the Cincinnati Southern board of trustees, said in a statement available on the railway website that the board received the $1.6 billion payment from NS, plus $20 million in deferred transaction fees, on Friday. The money will be invested through a contract with UBS Financial Services, and is projected to generate about $55 million annually — more than twice the approximately $25 million the city had received under its prior lease. By law, those funds can only be used to rehabilitate, modernize, or replace existing city infrastructure.
Voters approved the sale of the railroad last November in a closely contested election [see “Voters narrowly approve …,” Trains News Wire, Nov. 8, 2023]. The only city-owned interstate line in the U.S., the 336-mile between Cincinnati and Chattanooga, Tenn., had been leased by NS or its predecessors since 1881.
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