The Genesee and Wyoming Railroad was the predecessor to the G&W; Edward L. Fuller purchased it out of a bankruptcy in 1899. At that time, the railroad was operating as a single-track line serving a single customer, a salt mine owned by Fuller in Retsof, NY. It was still operating the same line for the salt mine when Mortimer B. Fuller III, great grandson of Edward L. Fuller, purchased the railroad in 1977. The holding company, Genesee & Wyoming Railroad Inc., was organized during the same year, and the railroad became its subsidiary. With deregulation of the rail industry by the Staggers Rail Act of 1980, railroads began disposing of unprofitable routes. Genesee & Wyoming acquired several of these short line railroads, scattered across the United States, from 1985 to 1996. Its acquisitions began including railroads in other countries in 1997.
Continued expansion
In November 1997 Genesee & Wyoming purchased the South Australian freight operations of Australian National and rebranded the operation Australian Southern Railroad. In October 2000 Australian Railroad Group, a 50/50 joint venture between Genesee & Wyoming and Wesfarmers, were the successful bidder for the Westrail freight business in Western Australia. As part of the joint venture agreement, ownership of Australian Southern Railroad passed to Australian Railroad Group. In July 2003, the Carolina Coastal Railway, operated by G&W subsidiary Rail Link, Inc., was sold to Main Line Rail Management, Inc. On May 26, 2005, G&W announced that it has agreed to purchase the railroad operations of Rail Management Corporation. G&W paid $243 million in cash and assume $1.7 million in company debt to gain control of 14 short line railroads from RMC across the southeastern United States, as of June 1, 2005. As of the close of 2005, Genesee & Wyoming had 2,330 employees in North America. That year, Hurricane Stan wiped out several miles of Genesee & Wyoming track in Mexico. In 2006, the Mexican government agreed to pay 75 percent of the rebuilding costs, or $15 million, to reconstruct the track. In June 2006 the Australian Railroad Group joint venture was broken up with the Western Australian above rail operation sold to QR National and the below rail infrastructure to Babcock & Brown in a $974 million deal. At the same time Wesfarmers sold its 50% share in the South Australian operation back to Genesee & Wyoming Inc for $15 million. The operation was rebranded One Rail Australia. Also in 2006, Genesee & Wyoming elected to write off most of the value of its Bolivian operation, on fears that the Bolivian government would soon nationalizeprivately held railroads there. Genesee & Wyoming remains an investor in Empresa Ferroviaria Oriental, S.A. In June 2010 Genesee & Wyoming, through a subsidiary holding company, paid A$334 million to acquire the operational rights to and the leasehold of the Tarcoola to Darwin Railway from the Asia Pacific Transport Consortium, and the operational rolling stock of FreightLink. This rail line was the longest the company has leased. On 2 August 2011, Genesee & Wyoming announced that it planned to purchase the Arizona Eastern Railway from Iowa Pacific Holdings for US$90.1 million, with the deal expected to be completed by the end of the year. The deal was closed on 1 September 2011. On July 23, 2012, Genesee & Wyoming agreed to purchase RailAmerica, the short-line railroad holding company controlled by Fortress Investment Group, for $1.39 billion to combine North America's two largest short-line and regional rail operators. On February 24, 2015, Genesee & Wyoming announced that it has agreed to acquire approximately 95% of the shares of Freightliner Group. On August 15, 2016, Genesee & Wyoming announced that intended to acquire the Providence & Worcester Railroad, which operates in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut and New York, for $126 million. The deal was approved by Providence & Worcester shareholders in October, and the Surface Transportation Board approved the acquisition in December. On February 7, 2017, Genesee & Wyoming announced that it had reached an agreement to purchase the Heart of Georgia Railroad, subject to regulatory approval. In May 2017, Genesee & Wyoming completed the purchase of Pentalver Transport Limited, a British container transport and terminal operator. In July 2019, affiliates of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners and GIC Private Limited announced they had agreed terms to purchase Genesee & Wyoming for $8.4 billion. The deal was closed in December 2019. Because Brookfield already has other rail assets in Australia that would likely lead to objections from the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission, G&W's 51% shareholding in Genesee & Wyoming Australia was sold separately and rebranded One Rail Australia.
Subsidiaries and holdings
Genesee & Wyoming Inc. owns controlling interests in 116 freight railroads, either directly or through subsidiaries, which are organized into local operating regions. These subsidiaries include Rail Link, Inc., Genesee & Wyoming Canada, Inc., Emons Railroad Group, CAGY Industries, and Summit View, Inc.. In 2005, G&W acquired the properties formerly owned by the Rail Management Corporation. Rail Link, Inc., provides industrial switching and related customer logistics services. Rail Link, headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, serves industrial customers in 13 states and serves more than 30 U.S. ports.
