Genesee & Wyoming

With more than 100 owned or leased freight railroads, Genesee & Wyoming Inc. (G&W) is the largest short line railroad holding company in North America. The company’s subsidiaries and joint ventures serve 2,000 customers over more than 13,000 miles of track and 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. Foster an engaging working environment that enables all our employees to reach their fullest potential. Channel our resources to make a positive contribution to the local communities where our employees live and work. Ensure trusted, transparent and compliant business practices every day across all our operations. Strive for zero incidents by embracing a safety culture of continuous improvement and empowering our employees and stakeholders with safety knowledge, resources and technology. Minimize our environmental footprint by improving the fuel efficiency of our current operations and using innovation and technology to unlock the future of renewable energy. Unless otherwise specified, when used on this website, the terms “Genesee & Wyoming,” “G&W,” “the company,” “we,” “our,” and “us” refer collectively to Genesee & Wyoming Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliated companies.

Through its subsidiaries, Genesee & Wyoming Inc. (GWI) oversees the operations of short-line and regional freight railroads and provides related railroad services, such as switching and rail-car leasing and repair. Celebrating its 100th anniversary in 1999, GWI had come a long way from its role as a regional hauler of rock salt, and in 1997 comprised 15 U.S. railroads--in New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Louisiana, and Texas--hauling bulk cargos such as coal, petroleum products, pulp and paper, lumber, and metals over about 1,500 miles of track. Nevertheless, the company maintained a link to its past in that Mortimer B. Fuller III, great-grandson of GWI's patriarch, retained an interest in the company. In the late 1990s, GWI made some acquisitions intended to enhance its size and scope within the niche market of short-line railroading. Interest in a Canadian company that owned and operated two short-line Canadian railroads was purchased in 1997, and the company also began operating freight service along about 900 miles of track in Australia. In addition, GWI acquired Rail Link, Inc., a leading provider of railroad switching and related services. The company traces its history to the 1899 founding of the Genesee & Wyoming Railroad Co., itself a successor of the Genesee & Wyoming Valley Railway in Livingston County, Pennsylvania. At the time, the company operated about 16 miles of railroad, which was used to transport rock salt from a mine in Retsof, in western New York. Its main line ran from Retsof to Pittsburgh and Lehigh Junction, with shorter branches running from Retsof to Greigsville and Retsof Junction. In 1899, this small railway was purchased by E.L. Fuller, who reorganized the company as the Genesee & Wyoming Railroad. Mortimer B. Fuller III, great-grandson of the founder, purchased a controlling interest in the firm in 1977 and began seeking contracts from industries that would make the railroad its sole supplier. Under his leadership the company, which was renamed Genesee & Wyoming Industries, Inc. and moved its main office to Greenwich, Connecticut, first entered the rail-car leasing business and then began making rail-line acquisitions, seeking contracts from industries that would make the railroad its sole supplier. Within a decade GWI became a leading provider of short-line and regional rail transportation and related services. The U.S. railroad industry underwent significant change after the passage of a 1980 Federal act that deregulated the pricing and types of services provided by railroads. The larger railroads focused their management and capital resources on their long-haul core systems, and certain of them sold branch lines to smaller and more cost-efficient rail operators willing to commit the resources necessary to meet the needs of shippers located on these lines. GWI was one of these smaller, more cost-efficient operators and began acquiring such lines in 1985, when it purchased The Dansville & Mt. Morris Railroad, a line with headquarters in Leicester, New York, and eight miles of track running a little south of G&W's own line. The company acquired the Ashford Junction-Rochester line in 1986 from railroading giant CSX Corp. This railroad, which GWI renamed the Rochester & Southern Railroad (R&S), was losing money and in very poor condition at the time of purchase because of deferred maintenance; the threat of derailment kept train speeds below normal, limiting the amount of traffic the railroad could carry. Under the parentage of Genesee & Wyoming, however, improvements were made; revenue carloads increased 36 percent between 1986 and 1988, and the company had 39 customers in 1989, including Eastman Kodak Co. In 1991 the R&S reached Buffalo via a connection at Silver Springs, New York, with a Canadian Pacific Railway line and by 1997 operated 66 miles of track in the Rochester, New York, area. During this time, Genesee & Wyoming also acquired the Buffalo & Pittsburgh Railroad (B&P) from the Pen