Edgewood Cutoff
The Edgewood Cutoff is a 169-mile single-track railroad line running north–south through southern Illinois and western Kentucky. Built by the Illinois Central Railroad, the Kentucky section opened in 1927 and the Illinois section in 1928. It starts near Edgewood, Illinois, where it leaves the IC mainline, and at Fulton, Kentucky near the Tennessee border it rejoins the mainline.
The cutoff was built to ease traffic on the IC mainline caused by the single-track Ohio River bridge at Cairo, Illinois. It crosses the Ohio River at Metropolis, Illinois on the Paducah and Illinois Railroad bridge. Because the cutoff lies east of the IC mainline, trains from Chicago to New Orleans could save about 22 miles by using it. Trains to and from St. Louis, and all IC passenger trains, continued to use the old Cairo route. The cutoff was especially helpful for heavy coal trains from western Kentucky.
The line has a gentler gradient than the old route—maximum 0.3% versus 1.2% on the Cairo line—and fewer curves. A long straight section runs 63 miles. Sidings let trains pass on the single-track line, and three tunnels were built in the forested region of southern Illinois.
The Illinois Central spent about $17 million to build the Edgewood Cutoff. They also studied rebuilding the Cairo line for about $24 million, but that plan was not pursued. After opening, more and more trains used the cutoff, and within a few years it carried more traffic than the old line.
In 1972, the IC merged with Gulf, Mobile & Ohio to form Illinois Central Gulf (ICG). The name was changed back to Illinois Central in 1988. Canadian National bought Illinois Central in 1999 and shifted most southbound trains to use the Edgewood Cutoff and most northbound trains to use the Cairo line. Amtrak currently uses the Cairo line, and no passenger trains have ever run on the Edgewood Cutoff.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 05:07 (CET).