64 Business View Magazine - May 2016
other recyclables, including glass. The construction
and demolition business is huge and to build a new
building, generally you have to take something down,
or when you remodel it, you have to take something
out. And these are inorganic waste streams that are
generated from construction activity. We also handle
MSW (Municipal Solid Waste) generated by the City of
New York.”
The NYA employs about 50 people and has two main
freight yards. In Fresh Pond, Queens, its inbound
freight carriers interchange with the two Class 1 rail-
roads, CSX and the Canadian Pacific, as well as a
regional carrier, the Providence & Worcester. In Bay
Ridge, Brooklyn, the NYA connects with the Norfolk
Southern, which gets its freight from an intermediate
terminal railroad, the New York/New Jersey Rail. The
NYA has various other yards, sidings, and transload
facilities along its routes. Victor says he is also eyeing
a ten-acre site in Long Island City, Queens, almost ad-
jacent to the entrance of the Mid-Town Tunnel. “That’s
a rather attractive property,” he says. “And looking for-
ward, we believe it’s going to be a very attractive loca-
tion for future transload opportunities.”
In many cases, railroads find themselves competing
with the trucking industry for clients. The NYA has com-
petition, but it is not mainly from that traditional com-
petitor. “There’s competition in several ways, in several
guises, if you will,” says Victor. “For certain commodi-
ties, the competition in this area is deep water. Com-
modities from foreign origin are going to come in by
water rather than rail. So, water is generally a negative
factor for us, because we really don’t serve ports – we
serve near the port, but not quite there. So, that’s a
huge competitive factor.”
Another factor that works against railroads in New
York City and Long Island are the area’s lofty property
values. “The real estate here is high. And that might
