Genesee & Wyoming’s 2021 U.S. Industrial Development Results Demonstrate Customer Growth, Rising Demand for Sustainable Solutions and Increased Appeal of Multimodal Logistics

DARIEN, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Genesee & Wyoming Inc. (G&W) today announced 2021 industrial development results, with 69 projects accounting for $1.5 billion in customer investments expected to generate more than 1,000 new jobs in communities served by the company’s 103 U.S. freight railroads.

“Based on last year’s customer investments, G&W’s freight transportation services continue to be critical to companies’ logistics strategies and the greater supply chain,” said Mike Peters, G&W’s chief commercial officer. “Going forward, we expect companies to increasingly look to rail transportation to meet Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) targets, and we are prepared to assist them in finding sites and services that help reach those goals.”

Among the highlights and trends of G&W’s 2021 new business wins:

• Despite a stressed global supply chain, there was investment in all major commodity groups, led by chemicals and plastics, minerals and stone, and agricultural products.
• A new “steel corridor” continues to grow along Indiana & Ohio Railway (IORY) with the development of a new customer facility in Delta, Ohio, that will receive inbound coils to make pipe. This marks the fourth steel customer to expand business along IORY since 2015.
• Customers that develop sustainable solutions are leveraging our footprint. In the south, Georgia Southwestern Railroad will serve a biodegradable plastics facility in Bainbridge, Ga. Out west, California Northern Railroad will serve a plant in Williams, Calif., that will produce renewable carbon pellets. And in the Midwest, Toledo, Peoria & Western Railway and Illinois & Midland Railroad welcomed new wind-turbine transload sites in Havana, Ill., and Remington, Ind.
• Transloading between truck and railcars has become an attractive logistics solution for customers without direct rail access. A transload site was established in Visalia, Calif., along the San Joaquin Valley Railroad for biodiesel and renewable diesel, while the Rapid City, Pierre & Eastern Railroad will transfer feldspar minerals at a transload site in Oral, S.D.

“Our railroads create flexible, customized transportation solutions that generate economic growth for the states and local markets we serve by adding long-term manufacturing jobs and direct investments in communities,” said Kevin Phillips, G&W’s vice president of industrial development.

G&W maintains a database of more than 600 potential industrial complexes, parks and other properties across its U.S. footprint at gwrr.com/id as well as a catalogue of more than 200 transload locations at gwrr.com/transload. The company also has an in-house team to help customers create potential track designs for new facilities. Learn more at gwrr.com/raildesign.

About Genesee & Wyoming

G&W owns or leases 116 freight railroads organized in locally managed operating regions with 7,300 employees serving 3,000 customers.

• G&W’s four North American regions serve 43 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 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 30 major ports, rail-ferry service between the U.S. Southeast and Mexico, transload services, and industrial railcar switching and repair. For more information, please visit gwrr.com or LinkedIn.