Georgia Central Railway Achieves Capacity for 286,000-lb. Freight Cars

Genesee & Wyoming Inc. (G&W)(NYSE:GWR) today announced that its subsidiary Georgia Central Railway, L.P., a 211-mile short line freight railroad operating between Macon and Savannah, has upgraded its entire line to handle 286,000-lb. railcar loadings, matching the capacity of connecting national railroads.

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Georgia Central Railway, a 211-mile short line freight railroad operating between Macon and Savannah, has upgraded its entire line to handle 286,000-lb. railcar loadings, matching the capacity of connecting national railroads. (Photo: Business Wire)

Enabling customers to ship and receive 286,000-lb. railcars increases Georgia Central’s competitiveness compared to other modes of transportation. The railroad had been limited to 263,000-lb. loadings due to the capacity of some of the 55 bridges on the line. In recent years, Georgia Central invested $4 million in projects to achieve 286,000-lb. capacity, including installation of 3,200 bridge stringers and 10,000 crossties. The most recent phase involved upgrades to the Pendleton Creek bridge, a 1,500-foot-long trestle with 119 spans.

“This is an important milestone in ongoing improvements to the Georgia Central’s ability to serve the growing Savannah market, including industrial development projects that will utilize the Georgia Port Authority’s Garden City container terminal,” said Andy Chunko, Georgia Central president. “An additional $8 million of investments are planned to increase track speed to 25 mph across the line, via a $4-million federal Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements (CRISI) Program grant announced in June and an accompanying $4-million match by Georgia Central. The combination of 286k loadings and higher speeds will help us win a greater share of our customers’ freight volumes and make the line even more attractive to new industrial development.”

In April 2019, G&W announced that Georgia Central will serve a $172-million plastics distribution facility under construction at the 197-acre Savannah Port Logistics Center on its line in Pooler, Ga. The new facility is expected to ship more than 5,000 annual carloads commencing in late 2019.

About Georgia Central

Georgia Central Railway, L.P., a subsidiary of Genesee & Wyoming Inc., transports freight including chemicals, farm and food products, fertilizers, forest products, metals, minerals and stone, plastics, and pulp and paper. It interchanges with CSX at Savannah; with G&W’s Heart of Georgia Railroad at Vidalia, Ga.; and with Norfolk Southern Railway at Macon, Ga. Learn more at www.gwrr.com/GC.

About G&W

G&W owns or leases 119 freight railroads organized in eight locally managed operating regions with 8,000 employees serving 3,000 customers.

• G&W’s six North American regions serve 41 U.S. states and four Canadian provinces and include 113 short line and regional freight railroads with more than 13,000 track-miles.
• G&W’s Australia Region serves New South Wales, the Northern Territory and South Australia and operates the 1,400-mile Tarcoola-to-Darwin rail line. The Australia Region is 51.1% owned by G&W and 48.9% owned by a consortium of funds and clients managed by Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets.
• G&W’s UK/Europe Region includes the U.K.’s largest rail maritime intermodal operator and second-largest freight rail provider, as well as regional rail services in Continental Europe.

G&W subsidiaries and joint ventures also provide rail service at more than 40 major ports, rail-ferry service between the U.S. Southeast and Mexico, transload services, contract coal loading, and industrial railcar switching and repair.

"Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: Statements in this press release regarding Genesee & Wyoming's business which are not historical facts are "forward-looking statements" that involve risks and uncertainties. For a discussion of such risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, see "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Report or Form 10-K for the most recently ended fiscal year.

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