The Terminal Railway was chartered on June 12, 1895 to connect the New York Central Railroad main line at Depew (42°54′31″N 78°42′53″W / 42.9087°N 78.7146°W / 42.9087; -78.7146) southwest through Gardenville to the NYC's Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway at Lackawanna (42°48′15″N 78°50′04″W / 42.8043°N 78.8344°W / 42.8043; -78.8344).

When originally built, the southwest end only provided direct access towards Buffalo, merging with the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern at the West Seneca Yard.

A connection was also built, in or soon after 1923, from the northeast end at Depew north to the New York Central's West Shore Railroad (42°55′57″N 78°43′09″W / 42.9325°N 78.7191°W / 42.9325; -78.7191).

This allowed trains on the West Shore, which paralleled the NYC main line, to also use the cutoff.

The 1998 breakup of Conrail assigned the remaining section to Pennsylvania Lines LLC, a subsidiary of Norfolk Southern.