LIRR Stocks

Anyone have a pic of what these looked liked they can post. Another question is about when the MTA was buying back the stock. Did a shareholder have to give back the stock? or did he have to sell it back to them? was he given the value of the stock?

I would assume any stock shares, if they existed, were held by the PRR by the time the MTA came in.

I don't think anyone can force you to sell a stock to them. Amtrak's been required by law since the late 90's to retrive all their outstanding common shares (I wonder if there's a certificate form of them?). Carl Lindner, I believe, actually owns the lion's share of them (A few million shates), and refuses to sell at Amtrak's offered price (supposedly 10 cents a share). The doesn't state what happens if the seller and Amtrak can't agree on a price, although no agreement - no sale. He legally owns the shares (though they have no voting power, only the preferred shares held by the US DOT do. Thus the common shares are effectively worthless, though they apparently have value anyway?), and AFAIK, there's no way he can be forced to sell.

Was the LIRR's stock ever publicly traded in any form? Then you'd have certificates (among one of a number of ways of holding stock), if it wasn't, you probbably wouldn't.

BTW, valid shares of Penn Central still apparently have value, and quite a bit.

I see what you mean now:
"his is the results of my final investigation of the value of my old Penn Central stock. As I am sure you are aware, the Penn Central Railroad was taken over by the government and sold to American Premier Underwriters. This company is an insurance company. The stock at the time of sale had made a reverse-split of 25 to 1 and since then has made a more positive split of 1 to 3. The stock is currently worth 3 shares of American Premiere for approx every 25 shares of the old Penn Central stock. The current price per share of American Premier is around $35 per share. My wife's shares are 66 shares which resulted in 7.92 shares at a value of $277.00. Would have been nice if it were several thousand shares huh?"

By the time the MCTA..forerunner of the MTA purchased the LIRR, the LIRR was nolonger a publicly traded company. By 1965, the PRR was in possession of 100% of the LIRR's stock. Since the stock was nolonger publicly traded, and the LIRR had not paid a dividend or made a profit since 1930, the stock was valueless except for the scrap value of the LIRR.

What the PRR and MCTA did, was, disregard any possibe stock value, since it had no value and instead, agreed on a sale price...$65,000,000. This price reflected the assets of the LIRR and the State's willingness to aquire a bankrupt, but very necessary, money pit. Without New York States intervention, the LIRR on asset value alone, was worth far less. Even today, the LIRR's actual value is in it's assets and the willingness of an entity to buy it regardless of the costs of running it. Without a willing entity to buy it, it has asset value only, since it costs more to operate it, than it does to simply liquidate it.

The LIRR stock certificates were transferred to the MCTA in the sale. They were in a warehouse and there was a fire which destroyed all but a few certificates and Gold Bonds. This is the reason why LIRR certificates are so rare. Surviving examples were from collections, like Dr. Ronan's (the first MCTA Chairman) and "speciman" certificates. They are quite valuable, fetching $500 to $1,000 per item.

It was a typical corporation with stock (100% owned by the MTA), until 1979. In that year, it was reincorporated as a "Public Benefit Corporation". This was done in order to solidify it's relationship to the State in hopes that the MTA/LIRR would be able to have it's employees under the NYS Taylor Law instead of the Railway Labor Act. Not only would this move have ended the ability for LIRR unions to strike, but, possibly have ended the LIRR from having to pay into Railroad Retirement, which is more expensive than Social Security. Also, the Federal Employer Liabilty Act (FELA), which is the Railroad industry's Worker's Compensation, would have been gone from the LIRR..they would simply purchase a Workers Comp policy and not had to abide by the provisions of the far more expensive FELA. Their efforts failed...the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the LIRR unions and the Federal acts are there to stay (see UTU vs. The Long Island Rail Road Co., 1982)..

Hope this helped

thanks alot, but does anyone have a pic of the stock? would it have just looked like a penn stockl?