New operator selected for P&N Railroad

A Boca Raton, Fla.-based short line and regional railroad company has been selected to restore freight service on the Piedmont & Northern Railway in Gaston County, the North Carolina Department of Transportation said, the Gaston Gazette reports.

Patriot Rail LLC was
selected from among five proposals submitted to the state last month to operate
the historic railroad on roughly 12 miles of state-owned track between Gastonia
and Mount Holly, N.C., that has been out of service for 20 years.

According to
www.patriotrail.com, the company owns and operates six short line freight
railroads with 331 total rail miles in eight states.

"They have a strong
history of taking shortline railroads, turning them into economic development
projects and increasing utilization of the rail," said Donny Hicks, director of
the Gaston County Economic Development Commission. "They have gained a lot of
experience with the other short lines."

The company’s mission is "to
purchase and operate shortline and regional freight railroads in North America,"
according to its Website.

Patriot Rail acquired its
first shortline railroad, the Tennessee Southern Railroad, in November 2006.
Today its holdings also include the Butte, Anaconda & Pacific Railway in
Montana, the Utah Central Railway in Ogden, Utah, the Sacramento Valley
Railroad in California, the Louisiana & North West Railroad in Louisiana
and Arkansas, and the Temple & Central Texas Railway in Texas.

The company’s management
team, led by Gary O. Marino, former chairman and chief executive of RailAmerica
Inc., collectively possess more than 300 years of railroad experience on
railroads in the United States, Canada, Australia, Chile and Argentina,
according to the company.

The bid from Patriot Rail
was selected over the current interim operator Carolina Coastal Railway and
Carolina Central Railway, a shortline operator that lost its initial bid to
operate the P&N Railroad. Aberdeen Carolina and Western Railway Co., of
Star, and Online Locomotive Services LLC, of Williamston, also submitted bids
last month.

Patriot Rail submitted "the
most responsive bid," the NCDOT reported. Now officials with the NCDOT and
Patriot Rail will negotiate lease terms and conditions.

Gaston County
Commissioner Joe Carpenter, who was a member of the selection committee with
Hicks, said he was disappointed that Carolina Central operator Bill Gray was
not selected, but Patriot Rail’s track record weighed in heavily in the
committee’s decision.

"They’ve got a good track
record of starting up several short rails across the country," Carpenter said. "Bill
(Gray) had a strong proposal as well. … I don’t think they have the passion for
it that Bill Gray does, but they seem to be a sound company."

NCDOT purchased the
P&N corridor, built in 1911, in December 1991 to preserve the line for
future transportation purposes. Gray initiated efforts to restore the railroad
in July 2007 and worked with state Sen. David Hoyle to allocate funding for the
project.

The first four miles of
track between Gastonia and Ranlo are ready for service and the line should be
completed to Mount Holly next year. Once restored, the P&N will offer
connections to two Class 1 operators – Norfolk Southern in Gastonia and CSX Transportation
in Mount Holly. CSXT still owns and operates freight service on a portion of
the P&N Railroad between Mount Holly and uptown Charlotte. A rail spur
running south into downtown Belmont is not part of the current plans for
freight service on the P&N and some want to convert it to a rail trail.

The NCDOT terminated
negotiations with Gray in November and put out a new request for bids in
January. Gray has said the state’s lease proposal last year was unreasonable,
but transportation officials say they offered favorable terms to Gray.

In January, Carolina
Coastal Railway was selected as the interim operator on the first segment of
the P&N Railroad. The Pennsylvania-based short line has a temporary lease
that expires after 180 days or when the long-term lease is finalized.