M&E Reports 13 Percent Freight Increase in 2014

The Morristown & Erie Railway ended 2014 with a 13% increase in freight rail traffic over 2013. This increase is part of a larger overall trend that has resulted in a 59% overall increase in M&E freight traffic between 2010 and 2014. The railroad is projecting similar traffic increases in 2015, partly due to several capital improvement projects designed to harness additional business opportunities.

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That's great news Rudy! How many carloads were there last year?

ccutler wrote:That's great news Rudy! How many carloads were there last year?

Well, I won't give you the exact number, but it was between 1 and 20,000. .... Seriously, though, we have to retain SOME trade secrets!

most railroads will state the amount of cars they handle in any given year, in their annual report.

why exactly are car counts on the m&e a "trade secret"?

if you can't provide numbers, you can't prove increases.

Most railroads also don't operate three county-owned rail lines that come up for bid every few years. Releasing car counts would make it much easier for other railroads to bid (because they would be able to calculate their potential revenues and costs and whatnot). Omitting the car counts from our press release was a calculated decision. Not that we think there is going to be competition for the bids, but we certainly don't want to encourage it. If we operated strictly on lines that we owned, releasing car counts wouldn't be an issue because we are not in danger of losing those lines (and those cars) to another operator.

That being said, we did want to report our positive developments and that we are seeing significant traffic increases, so we found a way to report it without releasing information that could potentially hurt us in the long run. That's why only the percentages are included in the press release.

GOLDEN-ARM wrote:if you can't provide numbers, you can't prove increases.

Who are they trying to appease? The railfan community? Those who need to know, do know. Outside of that, no need to 'prove' it to anyone. And judging by the source, I would go out on a limb and say you're just going to have to trust Rudy.

therudycometh wrote:Most railroads also don't operate three county-owned rail lines that come up for bid every few years. Releasing car counts would make it much easier for other railroads to bid (because they would be able to calculate their potential revenues and costs and whatnot). Omitting the car counts from our press release was a calculated decision. Not that we think there is going to be competition for the bids, but we certainly don't want to encourage it. If we operated strictly on lines that we owned, releasing car counts wouldn't be an issue because we are not in danger of losing those lines (and those cars) to another operator.

That being said, we did want to report our positive developments and that we are seeing significant traffic increases, so we found a way to report it without releasing information that could potentially hurt us in the long run. That's why only the percentages are included in the press release.

The same County owned lines that nobody else bothered to bid on last time the contract was up. Most likely due to the restrictive interchange that was part of the deal when Conrail sold the lines to the county. My guess was your car counts for the "county owned lines" was in the "1000-1500" range. Your contracts are safe, unless a new deal with the NS could be worked out.

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