Long Island’s freight railroad has a new leader

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Marlon Taylor has been appointed president of New York & Atlantic Railway, the freight railroad that serves Long Island. 

Taylor succeeds James Bonner, who has served as New York & Atlantic (NYA) president since 2016. Bonner is moving on to become president of the New York, Susquehanna & Western Railway. 

The appointment of the NYA’s new president was announced by Chicago-based Anacostia Rail Holdings (ARH), the parent company of the Long Island freight line. 

“Marlon has become an integral part of the NYA team since he joined the railroad in 2016,” B.A. (Bruce) Lieberman, ARH executive vice president and CFO, said in a company statement. “We could not have had a better candidate to continue building on the success of NYA. The railroad is in its best-ever financial and physical condition, and it fields a team of unmatched professional railroaders.” 

Taylor, who lives in Lynbrook, began his career in railroading when he joined ARH-owned Pacific Harbor Line in 1999. In addition to his responsibilities for NYA, he serves industry and community groups including the Safety & Operations Management Committee of the Association of American Railroads, as president of the Railroads of New York, and as a member of the Queens Chamber of Commerce and the Big Brothers and Big Sisters Leadership Council.  

“I look forward with enthusiasm to this new opportunity,” Taylor said in the statement. “Over the past eight years with NYA, I have enjoyed developing solutions that help our customers thrive, while serving our diverse community and workforce and managing our safe, efficient, and green operations. Our success has been achieved with the close cooperation of our host, the Long Island Railroad. It is the busiest commuter railroad in North America, and we are committed to maintaining our great relationship with this premier agency.” 

NYA was formed in May 1997 to operate freight trains on 270 miles of tracks owned by the Long Island Rail Road, including 30 miles of freight-only tracks in Brooklyn and Queens. 

NYA, which connects with six other railroads, serves a diverse customer base, and NYA’s freight trains replace more than 120,000 heavy truck trips that would otherwise be on area roads and highways. 

Most of the rail freight that NYAR brings to Long Island is heavy goods that include canned food, paper, building materials and crushed stone used to make asphalt and cement.  Outbound shipments include construction and demolition debris, contaminated soil, paper products and recyclables like scrap metal.