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The Paducah and Illinois Railroad is a non-operating Class III railroad, which owns about 14 miles of rail line between Metropolis, Illinois, and Paducah, Kentucky, including the Metropolis Bridge over the Ohio River. The P&I has no employees and owns no locomotives or equipment, other than the track and bridge. Today, the P&I is jointly owned in equal shares by the BNSF Railway, Canadian National Railway (through its US Subsidiary Illinois Central Railroad) and the Paducah and Louisville Railway.

History
In 1914, the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad constructed the Metropolis Bridge to extend their southernmost rail line from Metropolis to Paducah. Meanwhile, the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway had interest in accessing additional carload traffic in Southern Illinois. In 1917, an agreement was reached between the CB&Q and NC&StL to charter the Paducah and Illinois Railroad, each owning equal one-half shares. However, substantial freight traffic never materialized, and the bridge sat under-utilized. By 1920, the Illinois Central Railroad had begun construction of a freight-only cutoff from Edgewood, Illinois to Fulton, Kentucky to bypass the sharp curves and steep grades of the original charter line through Cairo, Illinois. IC had been seeking an alternate Ohio River crossing as their nearby existing rail ferry across the river at Brookport, Illinois would have been insufficient for their operations. NC&StL and CB&Q were eager to sell part of the company to IC, leaving NC&StL, CB&Q and IC with equal one-third ownership of the P&I Railroad. At that point, IC assumed operations and maintenance of the track and bridge.

As a result of railroad mergers the shares have been passed on to successor railroads. NC&StL's one-third ownership was passed on to successor Louisville and Nashville Railroad in 1957. By 1981, the L&N had ceased operating over the P&I as it had abandoned its lone connecting rail line in Paducah, which severed any direct connection with the P&I. Shortly thereafter, its ownership in P&I was succeeded to Seaboard System Railroad and later CSX Corporation, through it non-carrier corporate investment subsidiary CSX Capital Management (CSXM). In 1996, CSXM sold its share to the Paducah and Louisville Railway. In 1970, CB&Q's one-third share was passed on to successor Burlington Northern Railroad, and again in 1996 to BNSF Railway. IC's ownership continues as part of the Illinois Central Railroad Company, which is now a US subsidiary of Canadian National Railway Company.