NEW YORK — New York Regional Rail Corp. (NYRR) announced today that its rail subsidiary, New York Cross Harbor (NYCH) has been awarded a long-term transportation agreement by a major food producer for the shipment of rice. Under this agreement, rice shipments will be moved in conjunction with the Norfolk Southern, a Class 1 railroad, and New York & Atlantic Railroad (NY&A).
Projected revenue from this agreement is expected to be between $200,000 and $300,000 per annum. This is the second agreement to transport rice that the Company has been awarded. The first agreement was made recently with a new local customer on its Brooklyn, NY line. These two new customers’ shipments should result in rice fast becoming the New York Cross Harbor’s second largest food grade commodity handled, behind cocoa.
“What makes this last agreement significant is that it marks the first successful bid by the NYCH in cooperation with the NY & A. It ushers in what we hope will be continued successful collaboration between our two railroads,” stated Ronald Bridges.
Joel Marcus, CFO, stated, “These two rice movements will result in revenue growth of over 10% at our rail subsidiary and further increase our all profitability. It should be noted that in most metropolitan regions rail and trucking are roughly balanced, but in the New York Region rail transportation accounts for only about 3% of all shipments. There is tremendous opportunity for growth at our Company. One of the factors that had been holding us back, until recently, was our tenuous financial condition. Profitability and our stronger balance sheet have not gone unnoticed by the shipping community. Shippers are increasingly more confident in our reliability, both from a financial and operational perspective.”