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Genesee & Wyoming

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This article is about the railroad holding company. For the namesake subsidiary, see Genesee and Wyoming Railroad.

Genesee & Wyoming Inc. (G&W) is an American short line railroad holding company, that owns or maintains an interest in 122 railroads in the United States, Canada, Belgium, Netherlands, Poland, and the United Kingdom; and formerly in Australia.

Genesee & Wyoming Inc.
Company typePrivate
IndustryShort line and regional railroad freight
Founded1977; 47 years ago (1977) in Rochester, New York, U.S.
FounderEdward Laton Fuller
Headquarters
Darien, Connecticut
,
U.S.
Area served
United States, Canada, Bolivia, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Poland, Germany, Belgium, Australia (former)
Key people
Michael O. Miller, CEO
ServicesTransportation, logistics
RevenueIncrease US$2.719 billion (2019)[1]
Decrease US$261.0 million[1]
Number of employees
7,300
ParentBrookfield Infrastructure Partners
GIC Private Limited
Websitewww.gwrr.com Edit this at Wikidata

The company grew from the Class III Genesee and Wyoming Railroad, founded in 1899.[2] As of 2011, it operates more than 13,000 miles (21,000 km) of owned and leased track.[3] As of 2021, G&W owns or leases 116 freight railroads organized in locally managed operating regions with 7,300 employees serving 3,000 customers.[4]

G&W's four North American regions serve 42 U.S. states and four Canadian provinces and include 113 short line and regional freight railroads with more than 13,000 track-miles.

Its UK/Europe region includes the Freightliner Group, as well as regional rail services in continental Europe.

G&W subsidiaries and joint ventures also provide rail service at more than 30 major ports, rail-ferry service between the U.S. Southeast and Mexico, transload services, and industrial railcar switching and repair.[4]

History

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Huron Central Railway EMD GP40-2 in September 2009
 
Portland & Western Railroad EMD SD9 in October 2009
 
Genesee & Wyoming Australia GM class in April 2008

Early years

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The Genesee and Wyoming Railroad was the flagship predecessor to the G&W; Edward L. Fuller purchased it out of a bankruptcy in 1899. At that time, the railroad was operating as a 14.5-mile long (23.3 km) single-track line serving a single customer, a salt mine owned by Fuller in Retsof, New York. It was still operating the same line for the salt mine when Mortimer B. Fuller III, great-grandson of Edward L. Fuller, purchased the railroad in 1977. The holding company, Genesee & Wyoming Railroad Inc., was organized during the same year, and the railroad became its subsidiary.[2]

With deregulation of the rail industry by the Staggers Rail Act of 1980, railroads began disposing of unprofitable routes. Genesee & Wyoming acquired several of these short line railroads, scattered across the United States, from 1985 to 1996. Its acquisitions began including railroads in other countries in 1997.[2]

Continued expansion

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In November 1997 Genesee & Wyoming purchased the South Australian freight operations of Australian National and rebranded the operation Australian Southern Railroad.[5]

In October 2000 Australian Railroad Group, a 50/50 joint venture between Genesee & Wyoming and Wesfarmers, were the successful bidder for the Westrail freight business in Western Australia.[6][7] As part of the joint venture agreement, ownership of Australian Southern Railroad passed to Australian Railroad Group.

In July 2003, the Carolina Coastal Railway, operated by G&W subsidiary Rail Link, Inc., was sold to Main Line Rail Management, Inc.

On May 26, 2005, G&W announced that it has agreed to purchase the railroad operations of Rail Management Corporation (RMC). G&W paid US$243 million in cash and assume $1.7 million in company debt to gain control of 14 short line railroads from RMC across the southeastern United States, as of June 1, 2005.[8][9]

As of the close of 2005, Genesee & Wyoming had 2,330 employees in North America. That year, Hurricane Stan wiped out several miles of Genesee & Wyoming track in Mexico. In 2006, the Mexican government agreed to pay 75 percent of the rebuilding costs, or $15 million, to reconstruct the track.

In June 2006 the Australian Railroad Group joint venture was broken up with the Western Australian above rail operation sold to QR National and the below rail infrastructure to Babcock & Brown in a US$974 million (A$1.55 billion) deal. At the same time Wesfarmers sold its 50% share in the South Australian operation back to Genesee & Wyoming Inc for $15 million (A$22 million).[10] The operation was rebranded Genesee & Wyoming Australia.[11]

Also in 2006, Genesee & Wyoming elected to write off most of the value of its Bolivian operation, on fears that the Bolivian government would soon nationalize privately held railroads there.[12] Genesee & Wyoming remains an investor in Empresa Ferroviaria Oriental, S.A.[13]

In June 2010 Genesee & Wyoming, through a subsidiary holding company, paid A$334 million to acquire the operational rights to and the leasehold of the Tarcoola to Darwin Railway from the Asia Pacific Transport Consortium, and the operational rolling stock of FreightLink.[14][15] This 1,400 miles (2,300 km) rail line was the longest the company has leased.[2]

On August 2, 2011, Genesee & Wyoming announced that it planned to purchase the Arizona Eastern Railway from Iowa Pacific Holdings for US$90.1 million, with the deal expected to be completed by the end of the year.[16] The deal was closed on 1 September 2011.[17]

On July 23, 2012, Genesee & Wyoming agreed to purchase RailAmerica (RA),[18] the short-line railroad holding company controlled by Fortress Investment Group (FIG), for $1.39 billion to combine North America's two largest short-line and regional rail operators.[19][20][21]

On February 24, 2015, Genesee & Wyoming announced that it has agreed to acquire approximately 95% of the shares of Freightliner Group.[22]

On August 15, 2016, Genesee & Wyoming announced that intended to acquire the Providence & Worcester Railroad, which operates in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut and New York, for $126 million.[23] The deal was approved by Providence & Worcester shareholders in October, and the Surface Transportation Board approved the acquisition in December.[24]

On February 7, 2017, Genesee & Wyoming announced that it had reached an agreement to purchase the Heart of Georgia Railroad, subject to regulatory approval.[25]

In May 2017, Genesee & Wyoming completed the purchase of Pentalver Transport Limited, a British container transport and terminal operator.[26]

In July 2019, affiliates of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners and GIC announced they had agreed terms to purchase Genesee & Wyoming for $8.4 billion.[27][28] The deal was closed in December 2019.[29] Because Brookfield already has other rail assets in Australia that would likely lead to objections from the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission, G&W's 51% shareholding in Genesee & Wyoming Australia was sold separately to PGMM and the business renamed to One Rail Australia.[30][31][32]

Subsidiaries and holdings

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See also: List of railroads owned by Genesee & Wyoming

Genesee & Wyoming Inc. owns controlling interests in 122 freight railroads, either directly or through subsidiaries, which are organized into local operating regions. These subsidiaries include Rail Link, Inc. (1996), Genesee & Wyoming Canada, Inc. (1997), Emons Railroad Group (2002), CAGY Industries (2008), and Summit View, Inc. (2008). In 2005, G&W acquired the properties formerly owned by the Rail Management Corporation.

Rail Link, Inc. (reporting mark RLIX), provides industrial switching and related customer logistics services. Rail Link, headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, serves industrial customers in 13 states and serves more than 30 U.S. ports.[33]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Form 10-K 2014". Securities and Exchange Commission. Retrieved 22 May 2015.
  2. ^ a b c d "History". Archived from the original on July 4, 2010. Retrieved August 11, 2011.
  3. ^ "About Us". Genesee & Wyoming, Inc. Retrieved August 11, 2011.
  4. ^ a b "CG Railway Launches New Rail Ferry". Genesee & Wyoming, Inc. Retrieved March 11, 2021.
  5. ^ "An Sale: Private Owners Go From Zero to Three" Railway Digest October 1997 page 8
  6. ^ "Australian Railroad Group buys Westrail freight" Railway Digest October 2000 page 23
  7. ^ Company History Wesfarmers
  8. ^ Genesee & Wyoming, Inc. (May 26, 2005), Genesee & Wyoming Announces Agreement to Acquire Short Line and Port Railroads from Rail Management Corporation Archived October 17, 2005, at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved May 27, 2005.
  9. ^ Trains News Wire (May 26, 2005), G&W to acquire Rail Management Corp. rail operations[permanent dead link‍]. Retrieved May 27, 2005.
  10. ^ Sale of Australian Railroad Group Wesfarmers February 14, 2006
  11. ^ "Genesee & Wyoming Agrees to Sell Western Australia Operations and Certain Other Assets of the Australian Railroad Group for A$1.3 Billion (US$956 million)" (Press release). Genesee & Wyoming, Inc. February 13, 2006. Archived from the original on July 12, 2012. Retrieved 2006-02-14.
  12. ^ "Genesee & Wyoming Inc. Annual Report 2006" (PDF). Retrieved 2 August 2012.
  13. ^ "Empresa Ferroviaria Oriental, S.A." Genesee & Wyoming. Archived from the original on 24 June 2012. Retrieved 2 August 2012.
  14. ^ "Adelaide-Darwin railway sold to US company". ABC News. June 10, 2010. Retrieved August 11, 2011.
  15. ^ "FreightLink-owned Adelaide-Darwin railway to be sold to US company Genesee & Wyoming". Adelaide Now. The Advertiser. June 9, 2010. Retrieved August 11, 2011.
  16. ^ "Genesee & Wyoming Inc to acquire Arizona Eastern Railway". Rail.co. 2 August 2011. Archived from the original on 20 March 2012. Retrieved 3 August 2011.
  17. ^ "Genesee & Wyoming completes Arizona Eastern acquisition". Progressive Railroading. 6 September 2011. Retrieved 7 September 2011.
  18. ^ "Michigan's Railroad History 1825 - 2014" (PDF). Michigan Department of Transportation. 2014-10-13. Retrieved 2024-04-29.
  19. ^ "Genessee to Buy Fortress's RailAmerica for $1.39 Billion". www.bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2023-05-24.
  20. ^ "Genesee & Wyoming to pay $1.39B for RailAmerica". Yahoo! Finance. Greenwich, Conn. Associated Press. July 23, 2012. Retrieved September 22, 2023.
  21. ^ "UPDATE 4-Genesee & Wyoming to buy RailAmerica for $1.4 billion". Reuters. July 23, 2012. Archived from the original on March 5, 2016. Retrieved July 23, 2012.
  22. ^ Bloomberg (February 24, 2015). "Genesee & Wyoming Inc. Enters into Agreement to Acquire Freightliner Group Limited; Expands Rail Operations in the United Kingdom, Continental Europe and Australia". Retrieved February 25, 2015.
  23. ^ "UPDATE: Genesee & Wyoming to buy Providence & Worcester". Trains Magazine. August 15, 2016. Retrieved February 8, 2017.
  24. ^ "STB approves Genesee & Wyoming purchase of Providence & Worcester". Trains Magazine. December 19, 2017. Archived from the original on February 11, 2017. Retrieved February 8, 2017.
  25. ^ "Genesee & Wyoming to acquire Heart of Georgia Railroad". Trains Magazine. February 7, 2017. Retrieved February 8, 2017.
  26. ^ "Genesee & Wyoming finalizes acquisition of Pentalver Transport". Railway Pro. 5 May 2017. Retrieved 14 May 2020.
  27. ^ Genesee & Wyoming sold in $8.4 billion deal Archived 2019-07-01 at the Wayback Machine Trains July 1, 2019
  28. ^ Genesee & Wyoming to be acquired in US$8·4bn deal Archived 2019-07-02 at the Wayback Machine Railway Gazette International July 1, 2019
  29. ^ Sale of Genesee & Wyoming to Brookfield and GIC completed International Railway Journal December 31, 2019
  30. ^ G&W to be Acquired by Brookfield Infrastructure & GIC Genesee & Wyoming Australia July 1, 2019
  31. ^ New owners confirmed for G&W Australia International Railway Journal August 9, 2019
  32. ^ Genesee & Wyoming Australia renamed One Rail Australia following acquisition International Railway Journal February 17, 2020
  33. ^ "Port Operations". gwrr.com. Retrieved 2020-05-08.
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  • Official website  
    • Historical business data for Genesse & Wyoming:
    • SEC filings
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