page_title: International Railway (New York–Ontario)
section_title: Buses and modern rail lines
hierarchical_section_title: International Railway (New York–Ontario) / Buses and modern rail lines
context_page_description: The International Railway Company was a transportation company formed in a 1902 merger between several Buffalo-area interurban and street railways. The city railways that merged were the West Side Street Railway, the Crosstown Street Railway and the Buffalo Traction Company. The suburban railroads that merged included the Buffalo & Niagara Electric Street Railway, and its subsidiary the Buffalo, Lockport & Olcott Beach Railway; the Buffalo, Depew & Lancaster Railway; and the Niagara Falls Park & River Railway. Later the IRC acquired the Niagara Gorge Railroad as a subsidiary, which was sold in 1924 to the Niagara Falls Power Company. The NGRR also leased the Lewiston & Youngstown Frontier Railroad.
  The IRC maintained streetcar networks throughout Western New York: in Buffalo, Niagara Falls and Lockport, and a single line in Niagara Falls, Ontario.
context_section_description: In 1937 the IRC discontinued all interurban rail service, and replaced much of it with buses. On July 1, 1950, the remaining streetcar lines in both Buffalo and Niagara Falls, NY, ended, also replaced by buses. Within the same year, the Niagara Frontier Transit (NFT) took over all remaining IRC operations. In 1974, NFT and Grand Island Rapid Transit were merged into a public Corporation, named the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority (NFTA).
  The NFTA opened the subsidiary light rail rapid transit line known as Metro Rail along Main Street in Buffalo, from the Lackawanna Terminal to the University of Buffalo's South Campus. Much of this same route followed the previous 8-Main streetcar line only 35 years earlier.
caption: Workers arriving on IRC buses, 1943
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