GREENWICH, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Genesee & Wyoming Inc. (GWI) (NYSE: GWR) announced today that its wholly owned subsidiary, The Columbus & Ohio River Rail Road Company (CUOH), has signed a long-term agreement to serve the $900-million natural gas liquids (NGLs) fractionation hub being constructed in Scio, Ohio, by Utica East Ohio Midstream, LLC.
First announced in March 2012, the processing/fractionation/storage facility will be the largest integrated midstream service complex in eastern Ohio and GWI’s largest customer to date in the Utica Shale. The plant’s location was selected based on proximity to the Utica Shale’s liquids-rich gas, to key natural gas pipelines and to the CUOH. The CUOH will construct a one-mile rail siding and rehabilitate a three-mile storage track to serve the facility, which when fully operational is expected to ship 10,000 carloads of NGLs annually.
Upon its planned opening in May 2013, the Scio plant will also benefit from a recent $2-million expansion of CUOH’s main rail yard in Newark, Ohio, funded by a public-private partnership between CUOH and the State of Ohio. The Newark Yard expansion will facilitate the sorting of 100,000 railcars per year for more than 80 current customers and will also serve several new, Utica Shale-related projects that have located or are planning to locate on the CUOH.
“We are excited to be expanding our service relationship with Utica East Ohio Midstream and to be investing in rail infrastructure to support their business,” said John Murray, assistant vice president of sales and marketing for GWI’s Ohio Region. “Efficient rail service is a key requirement of shale development, and we are committed to providing our customers with the necessary rail services to meet their long-term transportation needs in the Utica and Marcellus markets.”
Matthew Dietrich, executive director of the Ohio Rail Development Commission, said, “The Newark Yard project with CUOH is an excellent example of how public-private partnerships spark economic development and job creation by improving our transportation infrastructure.”
GWI’s Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York railroads directly overlay the core development areas of the Utica Shale and western Marcellus Shale formations (see map at www.gwrr.com/shale).
About GWI
GWI owns and operates short line and regional freight railroads and provides railcar switching services in the United States, Australia, Canada, the Netherlands and Belgium. In addition, GWI operates the Tarcoola to Darwin rail line, which links the Port of Darwin with the Australian interstate rail network in South Australia. Operations currently include 66 railroads organized in 10 regions, with more than 7,600 miles of owned and leased track and approximately 1,400 additional miles under track access arrangements. We provide rail service at 23 ports in North America, Australia and Europe and perform contract coal loading and railcar switching for industrial customers. On October 1, 2012, GWI consummated the acquisition of RailAmerica, Inc. Immediately following the acquisition, control of RailAmerica was placed into a voting trust until such time as the U.S. Surface Transportation Board issues a decision permitting GWI’s control of RailAmerica’s railroads, and that decision becomes effective.
About RailAmerica
RailAmerica, Inc. owns and operates short line and regional freight railroads in North America, operating a portfolio of 45 individual railroads with approximately 7,500 miles of track in 28 U.S. states and three Canadian provinces.
"Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: Statements in this press release regarding GWI's business which are not historical facts are "forward-looking statements" that involve risks and uncertainties. For a discussion of such risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, see "Risk Factors" in GWI's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the most recently ended fiscal year, as updated in GWI’s subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q.