County Finishes Rail Project, Saves Business

Holland Manufacturing, a 53-year-old company had reached the end of the line.

So Wednesday, Holland, the Morris County Board of Freeholders and many local officials symbolically fixed the end of the line, and ensured that Holland would remain in Morris County.

Carefully wielding large hammers, several freeholders drove in the last two “golden” spikes to complete a $5 million project that rebuilt four miles of the Chester Branch rail line. The project will allow Holland to stay put, and has attracted new customers.

If the rail line that ran next to its Succasunna plant could not be repaired, Jack Holland, Holland’s chairman and chief executive officer, said Wednesday, “We would not be able to stay in our present location.”

The company manufactures tapes, adhesive papers and coated products and employs 90 workers. Its products are shipped all over the United States and to 12 countries, Holland said. It was founded in 1953 by his father.

“This is a wonderful thing,” Holland said. “It makes us happy. We’re happy to be in Succasunna.”

He said the rebuilt rail line will allow Holland to bring to Succasunna a company it recently acquired.

Because of the volume of materials needed to operate, Holland said, its goods can only be shipped by rail.

In the 1990s, Holland said, his company and Westinghouse, which at the time operated in an industrial park in Randolph, bought and maintained the line. In 2009, he said, the cost became too much for his company to sustain and he turned to the county.

Freeholder Gene Feyl said the county was able to secure, with the help of the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority, the federal stimulus funds to rebuild the Chester Branch.

The county owns three rail lines, the Chester Branch, The High Bridge Branch and the Dover & Rockaway  line.

The companies along the rail lines  employee 349 workers and generate an economic output of $189 million and pay an estimated $13 million in state and local taxes, he said.

Feyl said on May 10, 1869, 142 years ago Tuesday, the historic golden spike that completed the transcontinental rail road was driven at Promontory Point, Utah.

That same year,  the Chester Branch, the part of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad, opened to serve western Morris County’s iron business to “haul iron, equipment and supplies that spurred the economic development of much of  Morris County,” he said.

The railroads declined over time, as roads were improved and truck and bus transportation became more reliable.

But, Feyl said, “as in the past rail is once again becoming the more cost  effective and efficient mans of transportation. If we are to relieve congestion on our highways, mitigate air pollution, move people and goods rapidly, efficiently and economically, the only conclusion must be in the restoration of a robust rail network.”

A recent two-year study of freight movement in Morris County recommended that the county secure intact rail rights-of-ways to spur business growth.