DARIEN, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Genesee & Wyoming Inc. (G&W)(NYSE:GWR) announced today that its subsidiaries Toledo, Peoria & Western Railway Corp. (TPW) and Central Railroad Company of Indianapolis (CERA) have signed long-term agreements to lease and operate the Winamac Southern Railway (WSRY) and Kokomo Railroad (KR), respectively, which together own 57 miles of track in Indiana. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
Together with G&W’s Illinois & Midland Railroad, Inc. (IMRR) and Tazewell & Peoria Railroad, Inc. (TZPR), the new leases create a contiguous 400-mile, four-railroad footprint (CERA-TPW-TZPR-IMRR) spanning from Eastern Indiana to Western Illinois with connections to six Class I railroads.
TPW and CERA obtained authority from the U.S. Surface Transportation Board to lease and operate WSRY and KR effective as of Feb. 27, 2019, and commenced operations under the new agreements today with five employees and two locomotives. TPW and CERA are expected to handle approximately 5,000 carloads per year over the new lines, consisting primarily of agricultural products, chemicals and plastics and metals, of which approximately 3,000 carloads are currently interchanged with CERA.
WSRY and KR share common ownership with Kokomo Grain Co., which is a large customer of WSRY and the only customer of KR. “TPW and CERA have been operating WSRY and KR under a short-term agreement for the past three months and providing excellent rail service,” said Scot Ortman, president of Kokomo Grain. “Considering that prior to G&W’s ownership of CERA, Kokomo Grain evaluated building its own track to bypass CERA, the turnaround in our relationship is a testament to G&W’s customer focus and commitment to mutually beneficial partnerships.”
TPW and CERA are managed with G&W’s Midwest Region railroads under the leadership of Senior Vice President Martin Pohlod. “Since acquiring CERA and TPW in 2012, we have worked hard to repair their relationship with Kokomo Grain, and these long-term leases of WSRY and KR are a direct result of those efforts,” said Pohlod. “We’re planning immediate upgrades to the WSRY and KR lines to support the business and further enhance our customers’ routing options, interchange locations and geographic reach through G&W’s footprint of contiguous railroads.”
About G&W
G&W owns or leases 120 freight railroads organized in eight locally managed operating regions with 8,000 employees serving 3,000 customers.
- G&W’s six North American regions serve 41 U.S. states and four Canadian provinces and include 114 short line and regional freight railroads with more than 13,000 track-miles.
- G&W’s Australia Region serves New South Wales, the Northern Territory and South Australia and operates the 1,400-mile Tarcoola-to-Darwin rail line. The Australia Region is 51.1% owned by G&W and 48.9% owned by a consortium of funds and clients managed by Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets.
- G&W’s UK/Europe Region includes the U.K.’s largest rail maritime intermodal operator and second-largest freight rail provider, as well as regional rail services in Continental Europe.
G&W subsidiaries and joint ventures also provide rail service at more than 40 major ports, rail-ferry service between the U.S. Southeast and Mexico, transload services, contract coal loading, and industrial railcar switching and repair.
