(Source: Genesee & Wyoming press release, May 11, 2012)
GREENWICH, Conn. — Genesee & Wyoming Inc. (GWI) reported traffic volumes for April 2012. GWI’s traffic in April 2012 was 77,626 carloads, a decrease of 4,564 carloads, or 5.6 percent, compared with April 2011.
Excluding 1,274 carloads from the Arizona Eastern Railway (AZER) acquisition, which closed September 1, 2011, and 196 carloads from the Hilton & Albany Railroad, Inc. (HAL), which commenced operations on January 1, 2012, same-railroad traffic in April 2012 decreased 6,034 carloads, or 7.3 percent, compared with April 2011. GWI’s other commodity group traffic decreased 4,027 carloads primarily due to no overhead coal shipments in GWI’s Ohio Region in April 2012. Coal & coke traffic decreased 3,834 carloads primarily due to lower shipments in GWI’s Illinois, New York/Pennsylvania and Mountain West Regions. All remaining traffic increased by a net 1,827 carloads.
Carload Reporting for Metallic Ores Traffic
Effective January 1, 2012, a portion of GWI’s metallic ores commodity group includes intermodal containers as a result of a change in rail logistics and equipment for a customer in GWI’s Australia Region. The impact of this change increased traffic by 602 carloads in April 2012.
Historically, GWI has found that carload information may be indicative of freight revenues on its railroads, but may not be indicative of total revenues, operating expenses, operating income or net income. Car movements related to railcar switching, including activities at port terminals, are excluded from our carload information as the resulting revenues are classified as non-freight.
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, we operate the Tarcoola to Darwin rail line, which links the Port of Darwin with the Australian interstate rail network in South Australia. Operations currently include 65 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 17 ports in North America and Europe and perform contract coal loading and railcar switching for industrial customers.