In 1890, the JM&I was part of a merger creating the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway, which was controlled by the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR).
The portion of track between North Vernon and Madison was not included in the 1975 Final System Plan (FSP) for Conrail, which was to take over the PC and several other bankrupt railways in 1976.
Facing the complete loss of rail access to Madison, that city's port authority stepped in and eventually purchased that section of the line.
A 16.8-mile (27.0 km) portion of the original line between North Vernon and Columbus, Indiana was eventually dropped from the FSP before Conrail began operations in 1976.
[1] The rest of the original line from Columbus north to Indianapolis is now owned by the Louisville and Indiana Railroad (LIRC), which bought it from Conrail in March 1994.