(SOURCE: Valley News - By John Lippman)
The
Claremont Concord Railroad, one of the smallest railroad lines in the
country, is getting hitched to one of the world’s biggest rail carriers.
The Upper Valley short line that shuttles
freight over the Connecticut River between White River Junction and West
Lebanon and over a stretch of track in Claremont is being acquired by
Genesee & Wyoming, the Dar ien, Conn.-based railroad giant that owns
or leases 120 freight railroads around the world.
Genesee & Wyoming’s subsidiary New England
Central Railroad on Thursday filed a notice with the federal Surface
Transportation Board that it had reached an asset purchase agreement
with Claremont Concord Railroad to acquire the railroad’s line in
Claremont and lease to operate over a state-owned line in West Lebanon.
Michael Williams, a spokesman for Genesee &
Wyoming, confirmed via email earlier that the company is buying the
Claremont Concord Railroad, but declined to elaborate.
“When we’ve met with customers and when the transaction is finalized, we’ll be in a position to comment further,” he wrote.
Genesee & Wyoming’s New England Central
Railroad is a regional freight carrier that operates a 394-mile rail
line between New London, Conn., and the Vermont/Quebec border. Claremont
and White River Junction are interchange points along the line.
Christopher Freed, the owner of the Claremont
Concord Railroad, did not respond last week to emails or phone calls for
comment. Word had been circulating for more than a year among area rail
industry workers and watchers that Freed had his railroad up for sale,
although no definitive word surfaced until last month when New England
Central Railroad informed the Surface Transportation Board in a filing
that a notice had been posted in the workplaces of the Claremont Concord
Railroad of NECR’s intent to buy the Upper Valley railroad and that “as
a result of the transaction” two engineer-conductor jobs paying between
$18.34 and $24.45 an hour were expected to be available to workers.
Freed, who owns a Pennsylvania-based locomotive
services company, acquired the Claremont Concord Railroad in 2002 from
LaValley Building Supply, which in turn had bought the railroad from
Pinsly Corp. in 1989, said Steven LaValley, comptroller at the New
Hampshire-based construction materials supply firm. He said LaValley
Building Supply stepped in to buy the struggling railroad, which it
depended on to help convey large building materials to its Claremont
store, when Pinsly threatened to abandon the line. Prior to Pinsly, the
railroad was owned by the Boston & Maine line.
The Claremont Concord Railroad’s origins date
back to the mid-19th century as a line to connect its two namesake
cities. Over the following 100 years, the company passed through
numerous mergers and consolidations before being absorbed by Boston
& Maine. But as the Northern New England rail industry declined
along with the region’s manufacturing, sections of the line began to be
abandoned around 1960 until it had shrunk to its current remnants by the
late 1980s.
Claremont Concord Railroad’s customers include
Rymes Propane & Oil and Twin State Sand & Gravel in West
Lebanon, fertilizer wholesaler Beaudry Enterprises and LaValley Building
Supply in Claremont, and New York State-based rock salt miner and
distributor American Rock Salt, according to the company’s website. A
sister company, Eagle Leaf Transload, also provides bulk transfer
services between railcar and trucks for commodities such as salt,
cement, fertilizer, pipes, rebar, structural steel and brick at Westboro
Rail Yard in West Lebanon and Claremont Junction in Claremont.
For example, Rymes uses the short line to haul
propane tank cars from White River Junction, where it arrives on rail
from suppliers around the country, to West Lebanon, said John Rymes,
vice president of the company. He welcomed the sale since he ships
propane on New England Central’s rail cars and “it means I’ll now be
dealing with one company instead of two.”
Warren “Bud” Ames, president and co-owner of
Twin State Sand & Gravel, said he utilizes the Claremont Concord
Railroad between November and March to bring 250 to 300 carloads a year
of rock salt, which he sources in New York State, to his West Lebanon
plant. And Steven LaValley said his company still contracts with
Claremont Concord Railroad’s trains to transfer lumber and other
supplies from the Claremont Junction rail yard to the LaValley outlet on
Pleasant Street.
“Railroads don’t play nice with each other,”
Ames said about the frequently testy relations among carriers when it
comes to negotiating and prioritizing movement of cars over tracks and
between interchanges. “If it’s under one roof, they’ll play nice,” he
said.
New England Central’s rationale for the takeover
of the Claremont Concord Railroad was partially spelled out in its
filing on Thursday, explaining “the acquisition will give NECR direct
access to transload locations and other customers served by CCRR.
Eliminating a carrier from the route should increase the efficiency of
operations and benefit CCRR’s shippers.”
New England Central Railroad, added the company,
“believes it will be able to use its greater resources to grow the
business on the lines.”
As a tiny short line with only a handful of
steady customers, the Claremont Concord Railroad is no longer as busy as
it was in White River Junction’s glory days as a Northern New England
rail hub. The company today has four operating train engines, according
to Christopher Parker, executive director of the Vermont Rail Action
Network, including a General Motors-made 1,750-horsepower GP9 and three
1,000-horsepower American Locomotive Co. “switch engines.”
Parker estimates the value of the 1950s-era GP9
to be about $100,000 and the value of each of the ALC switch engines at
between $10,000 and $60,000 “depending upon condition.” In addition,
the company owns two 380-horsepower General Electric-made engines known
as “forty-four tonners” that are meant to haul only a couple of cars,
although Parker’s not sure they are still in operation. The railroad
also owns the one mile length of track that runs from Claremont Junction
east to the LaValley Building Supply store between Mulberry Street and
Pleasant Street.
Genesee & Wyoming’s plan for the Claremont
Concord is unknown beyond what it said in its filing. But White River
Junction resident Kevin Burkholder, who first reported the news of the
railroad’s sale on his Eastern Railroad News website in March, said that
Genesee & Wyoming’s New England Central Railroad, in addition to
the advantages in serving customers, could also have its eye on
Claremont Concord Railroad’s locomotive repair shop at its Claremont
site. He noted that at present New England Central Railroad either has
to run trains down to its Palmer, Mass., substation or a facility in St.
Albans, Vt., for quartely inspections.
“Strategically it gives New England Central
access to shop facilities that otherwise would take a day to run trains
up and back,” Burkholder noted, thereby saving the company valuable time
and expense.
Burkholder said the advantage for New England
Central to own the Claremont spur was clear given Concord Claremont
Railroad’s ownership and control of its track in the city. But he said
access to the tracks in White River Junction is potentially complicated
because it is controlled by Burlington-based Vermont Rail System, a
major carrier in the state that owns several regional lines and operates
more than 350 miles of track. New England Central needs permission for
use of Vermont Rail’s track in White River Junction, which puts the
privately owned midsize railroad in an advantageous position in dealing
with New England Central. Indeed, area rail industry watchers have long
speculated that Vermont Rail System was the logical buyer for the White
River Junction-West Lebanon portion of the short line.
Nonetheless, Parker, of Vermont Rail Action
Network, observed that Claremont Concord Railroad “integrates nicely”
with New England Central Railroad. The acquisition would “streamline
operations” and there is a “substantial opportunity for at the terminals
to transfer freight from rail to truck. ... Its proximity to the
interstate in West Lebanon makes it an excellent property for freight
growth and freight development.”
The northern spur of the Claremont Concord
Railroad — which is now owned by the state of New Hampshire — runs along
4.6 miles of track extending from White River Junction, over the
Connecticut River into West Lebanon and then southwestward to parallel
the Mascoma River before terminating between the river and Glen Road
just short of the Miracle Mile shopping corridor. Earlier this year, the
Claremont Concord Railroad was granted approval to discontinue nearly
one mile of track in Lebanon that is to be rehabilitated as part of the
city’s rail trail.
“From our experience (the Claremont Concord
Railroad) really wasn’t profitable,” LaValley said. “If it is, it’s
marginally so.” He estimated that the company’s total assets, including
the locomotives, would be valued today at about $500,000, although
LaValley said it could be higher depending on the property’s use
potential. He said at the time LaValley Building Supply owned the
Claremont Concord Railroad it had about 10 employees.
