Conrail, established in 1976 to salvage bankrupt northeastern railroads, epitomizes the economic stagnation, government intervention, and infrastructure decay of the late 1970s. Formally the Consolidated Rail Corporation, Conrail was the primary Class I railroad in the Northeastern United States between 1976 and 1999. Born from the ashes of the Penn Central and the Erie Lackawanna, Conrail reached west to Chicago via the grungy, ghetto rail lines south of Lake Michigan. Conrail began to turn a profit in the 1980s and was privatized in 1987. CSX Transportation and the Norfolk Southern Railway agreed in 1997 to acquire the system and split it into two roughly-equal parts.