G&W aquires RailAmerica

They are kinda sweating it up here. Been through a couple of buyouts myself (not RR) and it can be scary

I believe we are at 23.37 /hr. Yes if they cut pay, I will have to pull the pin as I cannot live on less. Yeah they told us/you that there will be no wage/vacation cuts until they negotiate a new contract after the takeover happens when your current one is up.

G&W announced this week that the acquisition is completed, with financing plan approved for paying for it. RA has been placed in a trust pending final decision from the STB to commence control of the company.

http://www.progressiverailroading.com/s ... ust--32768

Fair use from Railway Age,
The Surface Transportation Board (STB) has approved Genesee & Wyoming Inc.’s application to control RailAmerica, Inc., and the RailAmerica railroads, effective Dec. 28, 2012.

More at
http://www.railwayage.com/index.php/fre ... channel=94

And the actual STB decision,
http://www.stb.dot.gov/decisions/readin ... /42772.pdf

This should be interesting. I'll have to make a trip down to Peoria soon to see the combined Tazewell and Peoria, Illinois & Midland Railroad, and Toledo, Peoria, and Western railroads!

I'm not sure if we have a dedicated G&W forum or even a dedicated G&W thread — I couldn't find one — so I'm posting this here, but I encourage the mods to move my post if they know of a better venue for it.

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Thanks to RAILROAD.NET member "bostontrainguy" for alerting me to this incident.

From The Globe and Mail:

The Globe and Mail wrote:A 90-car train carrying crude oil derailed and exploded in a rural area of western Alabama early on Friday, leaving 11 cars burning and potentially bolstering the push for tougher regulation of a boom in moving oil by rail.

No injuries have been reported, but 20 of the train’s cars derailed and 11 were still on fire, the train owner, Genesee & Wyoming, said in a statement. Those cars, which threw flames 100 metres into the night sky, are being left to burn down, which could take up to 24 hours.

A local official said the crude oil had originated in North Dakota, home of the booming Bakken shale patch. If so, it may have been carrying the same type of light crude oil that was on a Canadian train that derailed in the Quebec town of Lac-Mégantic this summer, killing 47 people.

Read the rest of the article at: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-o ... e15351149/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;