The story
Lake State began operations in 1992 after Jim George acquired all the lines operated by the Detroit and Mackinac Railway. One of the lines acquired was originally Michigan Central from Bay City to Cheboygan. Another line—originally D&M trackage—branched off in Pinconning and followed Michigan's eastern coastline to Rogers City. The trackage north of Gaylord to Cheboygan was abandoned shortly thereafter. While a few minor spurs were abandoned, no other mainline was until 2001, when its line past Alpena to Rogers City (the Rogers City Branch) was removed.
In 2005, Lake State acquired 67 miles of trackage from CSX Transportation around Saginaw, Midland, and Bay City. This trackage was operated under the subsidiary Saginaw Bay Southern Railway.
In late 2011, it was announced that the SBS would merge with Lake State, with LSRC being the surviving company. The merger was strictly for railway accounting purposes; LSRC functioned as an Interline Settlement System (ISS) carrier, while SBS functioned as a Junction Settlement (JS) carrier through CSX. Lake State converted the former SBS lines to ISS. Following the news of the merger, Lake State stopped painting the Saginaw Bay Southern logo on its locomotives.
On June 11, 2018, Lake State started leasing 4 miles of former Grand Trunk Western trackage in Port Huron, MI from Canadian National. The line was part of the original mainline that was built by the Grand Trunk Railway in 1859. The line runs from the west end of CN's rail yard at Tappan to Dunn Paper at the head of the St. Clair River and Lake Huron. Despite the closure of Domtar in 2021 and Dunn in 2022, Lake State plans to continue rail service on this line and develop new business. It was announced in 2025 that the former Domtar Mill was sold and would restart production on one of its paper machines under the ownership of Legacy Paper Group.
In 2018, Railway Age awarded Lake State with their "Shortline of the Year" award.
In March 2019, LSRC began leasing 53 miles of the CSX Saginaw Subdivision from Mt. Morris to Plymouth.
In March 2021, LSRC began transporting automotive traffic from the old Buick City Flint facility.
In November 2021, Railway Age awarded Lake State with their "Regional of the Year" award.
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In March 2022, LSRC was purchased by Antin Infrastructure Partners.
In the Huron division, there are museums at former railroad depots at Harrisville, Lincoln, and Standish, Michigan. The latter two include retired engines and rolling stock.
From Wikipedia’s article on Lake State Railway, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5