SEDA-COG is a publicly funded development organization based in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania and serving an 11-county region. We help the counties ─ and the communities and citizens within them ─ address challenges related to their economies and infrastructure, and we assist them in responding to new opportunities in such areas as energy, technology, market development, transportation, and locally-based resources.

For its first seven years, the Juniata Valley Railroad (JVRR) operated out of an old boxcar in the Lewistown Rail Yard.  The locomotive, kept outside, was plugged into an engine block heater to keep it from freezing in the winter.  Nine years ago, the box car was replaced with a modern engine house with room for two locomotives and a repair pit allowing work crews to get under the locomotives and make repairs when they are needed.

That new engine house is just part of the growth that's

Locomotives were kept outside before the new engine house at the Lewistown rail yard was built in 2006.

occurred on the JVRR since it became part of the SEDA-COG Joint Rail Authority's (JRA's) short line railroad system in 1996.  Today the rail line serves ten customers, and carload totals were a record 3,104 in 2011, a 164% increase since the JVRR's inception. 

Remarkably, there is no Marcellus Shale/natural gas-related traffic on the JVRR.  Marcellus-related business has been the primary force for increased carload totals on other rail lines in the JRA system. 

The Juniata Valley line was created out of Mifflin County's former Maitland and Milroy Industrial Tracks, and a spur into the Mifflin County Industrial Plaza.  A number of projects have been completed since then, addressing safety issues and complimenting economic development.

Regarding the JVRR's economic impact, Robert Postal, President, Mifflin County Industrial Development Corporation (MCIDC) points out, "The three largest companies in our industrial park are served by rail ─ First Quality Baby Products, Trinity Packaging, and Greenbrier Rail Services.  Together they employ about a thousand people.  And, because they're manufacturing firms, on average they pay higher wages than other companies."

Another of the JVRR's customers, Sylco Service & Terminal, has become Pennsylvania's largest rail-to-truck fertilizer operation.  It undertook a $2 million expansion in 1998, 

Standard Steel, a small portion of which can be seen on the left, is the biggest customer on the Juniata Valley line.

constructing three storage facilities at the Lewistown Rail Yard.  Sylco serves independent retailers along the Eastern seaboard from Canada through Ohio to the Carolinas. 

In 2010, concerns over safety and vehicular traffic led to a major project along Water Street in downtown Lewistown.  A total of 1,114 feet of track, running down the middle of the street were improved at a cost of over $1 million.  The cost was split between PennDOT, JRA and JVRR.  The Borough of Lewistown and local Municipal Authority were contributing partners.  "The street running track is simply a very long grade crossing," said Jeff Stover, Executive Director, JRA.  As part of the project, pre-empted traffic lights were installed at the intersection of South Main and Water Street.  This street running track in Lewistown is the longest in the region, although there are similar situations in Berwick, Shamokin, and Tyrone.

Based on the recent past ─ with more carloads, companies expanding, and new firms like First Quality coming to Lewistown ─ the Rail Authority is excited about the JVRR's future and has recently begun looking for sites along the line that could be used for rail operations or economic development.

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