The Monon railroad company is the successor on the Monon railroad/Chicago Indianapolis & Louisville railroad. The CI&L was founded in 1847 by James Brooks and a small group of men that saw an opportunity to take over new right of way that had just became available from the state of Indiana. They wanted a faster and easier way to haul/ship good and passengers through out the state. In 1847 the New
Albany and Salem railroad was built, By 1900 the railroad was booming with business and it was under the new name Chicago Indianapolis and Louisville railroad. Over the next 46 years the CI&L went through bankruptcy and was then brought back to life in 1946 a new president came in and brought the CI&L into the new diesel era and made a lot of improvements on track beds, locomotives, Passenger cars and fright service. The CI&L 26 the Monon ran as a railroad and then on July 31 1971 the Monon merged with L&N and was no longer a railroad. The goal of the Monon Railroad Company is to provide all of Indiana that the CI&L served with passenger and fright our goal is the bring back rail travel in Indiana on the same Right of Way that that CI&L traveled on over night shipping of freight goods that will be to our customers the next day at affordable prices along with the 12 passenger a day that will run each day 6 trains sill run from Chicago to Louisville and the other 4 will provide daily service between Chicago and Cincinnati daily. The last 2 trains will be running from Chicago to Bloomington serving the colleges along the rail line and they will be running on Fridays and Sundays .Our goal is to bring back rail service to Indiana for many years to come.
