G&W to acquire P&W

[daylight4449]

The only thing being lost is P&W's individuality.

Alright, I can agree with all the other points, but I'd question that last one Chris. Most of the marketing stuff is handled on the regional level over at G&W from what I understand, but you've still got the same crews and on-site management, assuming people don't leave. Last I checked, those people make the company...

[wintower]

P & W sold to according to some business sites.

[F-line to Dudley via Park]

It's probably going to be a whole lot more P&W employees than NECR. P&W anchors the more-or-less geographical center of the system with the entrenched headquarters. They have always been highly, highly centralized in downtown Worcester...crews, dispatching, shops & maintenance. The on-the-ground brainpower is all there, so it makes sense to keep that as the nerve center. Of course there's going to be a #2 home office in Vermont and of course they'll need all the yard space they can get around the system (Worcester too, where the space crunch is dire), but NECR has always been more diffusely spread because of their smaller size and singular mainline. They now just got big enough where a flag needs to be flown over a real high-profile home office on the railroad...not just at G&W's Darien offices. P&W, fortunately, arrives with that locational infrastructure fully in-tow...in the single-largest city on the railroad, stone's throw away from the CSX and NS slug-fest for intermodal supremacy. There's no better place to plant the flag for the new railroad than right there at Southbridge St.

[F-line to Dudley via Park]

P & W sold to according to some business sites.

See the stickied thread at the top of every forum page.

[Ridgefielder]

Anybody know anything about the Briscoe Law Firm?
...
A Google search of "Willie Briscoe" suggests that the Briscoe Law Firm makes a business out of investigating several publicly traded firms who have agreed to be acquired.

Nuisance lawsuit, happens with just about every single merger of a public company.

[FLRailFan1]

CSOR is a messy fit because it's paper-barriered to the hilt by CSX for the ex-Conrail territory operatred, and by Pan Am for the ex-B&M territory operated. They can't even freely interchange with P&W at Cedar Hill and Hartford except for a narrow list of allowances. Combining P&W and NECR into one reporting mark is easy because they're unencumbered by paper barriers on the contiguous system. There's no reason for G&W not to unify them into a solidly large Class II mark. CSOR is probably going to have to remain separate unless G&W wants to shell out a humongous overpay of ransom money to break its entanglements (which CSX could still see strategic reasons to say no to). And that's probably still not worth G&W's while to pay the ransom even though they technically now control over 60% of the rail tonnage that moves through the state and nearly half the total route miles (excl. overhead rights). Have to wonder if there's going to be some additional bartering involving CSOR to square the awkwardness of the other two still being blocked from the most lucrative traffic around Greater Hartford and the I-91 corridor.

Could the CSOR be merged into the P&W? I mean, if that happened, could the paper barriers be done away with? It wouldn't be CSOR anymore, so the P&W could deal with a few class 1s -- CN, CP, NS, CSX - and besides, I doubt CSOR will be anything (Manchester branch is dead now, Armory should be sold to CNEZ), so CNEZ could use the Eash Hartford yard to make up their trains...

[chrisnewhaven]

The only thing being lost is P&W's individuality.

Alright, I can agree with all the other points, but I'd question that last one Chris. Most of the marketing stuff is handled on the regional level over at G&W from what I understand, but you've still got the same crews and on-site management, assuming people don't leave. Last I checked, those people make the company...

I've always felt this fell into three categories; upper management, personnel, and identity. Upper management will now either be based out of Darien or take direct orders from them, consolidation of marketing and accounting, etc. That's part of the economies of scale that make this work. The on the ground personnel will not change much, so the human element of the "old" P&W will carry over to the "new".

But the Providence & Worcester as an identity will be curtailed. Look at the P&W now; clean and/or freshly painted locomotives dominate the roster. They wasted no time painting the SD70 Macs. The specials they run with their passenger equipment. They clearly put effort into building a brand and public character. Now this will be replaced with G&W yellow and orange, itself an established brand but not quite the same. Now they'll be "Providence & Worcester; A Genesee & Wyoming Company". The mothership comes first.

Regardless, this is a matter of semantics. Good service, not identity, pays the bills, and this acquisition should be beneficial to all parties involved. Looking forward to another 169 years of the Providence & Worcester, in some shape or form!

C.J.V.

[chrisnewhaven]

Regarding the Conn. Southern, at the very least engine facilities at Cedar Hill could be consolidated (if Conn. Southern finds itself needing to lay over there, anyway). A locomotive pool could be instituted between the two roads there, not to mention the fact that Pan Am will no longer be involved with power swaps between the Conn. Southern and NECR. There's also the possibility of diverting the Hartford to New Haven road freights via Middletown when NH-Hartford-Springfield traffic picks up (which way does the wye in Middletown face again?). The paper barriers limit the amount operations can consolidate and play off each other, but doesn't eliminate the efficiencies completely.

C.J.V.

[FLRailFan1]

As I was thinking, if the P&W merged the CSOR, maybe the Midland route could reopen, then the G&W wouldn't pay Amtrak for trips on the NEC (the only industries is Branford Steam RR, now).At least it is in my dreams and on my model railroad layout...

Now, G&W buy the Housy...(lousy management, nice livery)...hate the standard colors of G&W...(Maybe they should do hertiage units... (The New Haven in the Cranberry color or the black, white and red of New Haven (like the NH2525)

[BandA]

I think they have a structure where the preferred shareholder family trusts control the voting, and the common shareholders are along for the ride. They will have to find comparables and demonstrate that the shareholders are getting treated fairly. If they are a Massachusetts company (I don't know) there may be a Right of Valuation where a shareholder can formally challenge the buyout price. All very complicated, and I am sure it will go through. Clearly P&W is a strategic railroad.

[Noel Weaver]

I tried to post about this a little while ago but it did not function as intended. Here is a link to something about this from my union website. I think this could be quite interesting. The only place where there is an overlap is between Norwich and New London and the connection between the two at Norwich is long history. I doubt if any portion of either railroad will be abandoned. There were be three shops in New England; the paint shop at Plainfield, the shop at Worcester and the largest and best equipped of the three on the NEC at St. Albans. Something might happen with their shop facilities sometime down the road. The only connection between the two is at Willimantic and I'll bet the P & W will be glad they did not let that line fade away. Paint scheme is not that important. I wonder what will happen to the P & W's passenger cars? Here is the link.

http://www.ble-t.org/pr/news/headline.asp?id=44786" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Noel Weaver

[F-line to Dudley via Park]

Could the CSOR be merged into the P&W? I mean, if that happened, could the paper barriers be done away with? It wouldn't be CSOR anymore, so the P&W could deal with a few class 1s -- CN, CP, NS, CSX - and besides, I doubt CSOR will be anything (Manchester branch is dead now, Armory should be sold to CNEZ), so CNEZ could use the Eash Hartford yard to make up their trains...

It's not the branches, it's the Springfield Line. CSX really has CSOR under their thumb on the ex-Conrail NHV-SPR rights. They're basically indentured servants, and whoever those ex-Conrail rights get passed on to are just as captive as the previous guy. Operational efficiencies, sharing equipment...sure, that gets helped by this. NECR and CSOR already do that, and the addition of P&W to the mix enhances that flexibility substantially while lowering operating costs. But this deal doesn't buy P&W/NECR free moments to interchange with CSOR. It's the same very limited list of allowable interchanges as before, and that would remain the case on the Springfield Line even if you rolled all 3 reporting marks into 1. One part of the system would always be partially off-limits to all the rest of the system unless G&W bought out the Conrail barriers. CSX has less motivation than ever to do that now that it's got to hedge against CN as a competitive threat across the street from them in Worcester. It serves their purposes to keep the new system partially divided and not totally free-flowing so they don't have to stare down CN traffic in their West Springfield backyard too.

For that reason, I can see NECR and P&W being completely united into one new railroad reporting mark to-be-determined, but CSOR is probably still going to be CSOR. As for what happens with CSOR? Well...if Norfolk Southern takes over Pan Am Southern they're probably not going to be interested in running their minor Connecticut branchlines. And since P&W is kind of a competitive threat to NS now by bringing the CN lane deep into New England, if they're looking for an outsource candidate they can sell the Highland Line ownership to CDOT and the paper-barriered rights to CSOR. CSOR basically grows by amassing a collection of paper barriers and balancing its captivity between CSX and NS. Fine by G&W...there's a lot of growth potential and plenty of profit to be had there. But the game hasn't really changed for them; CSOR's business model is still the same as it is today, even if it grows its territory. It doesn't mesh with the new Class II that was created out of a unified P&W and NECR. For that reason it makes sense to keep CSOR a separate reporting mark even though Darien's reaping the benefits any which way the numbers are tallied up.

[BandA]

Aren't NECR & Pan-Am in a hostile relationship over trackage fees? Will this spillover into the P&W?

[CPF363]

Genesee & Wyoming's move to purchase P&W is both a business move and a strategic move. One has to figure that G&W has been watching to numbers on the NECR and needed to find a way to boost revenue on the entire line from New London to the Canadian Border. The only real option is the P&W as there is nothing else available and it provides new markets, mainly New York and Rhode Island for G&W at he same time. Freight going to and from the P&W could generate more over the road revenue for the NECR and provide those P&W-based customers with single line service to Canadian National's system. One has to figure CN is worked into this deal indirectly as they will be able to acquire more market share in the New England market under this deal. Will be interesting to see what traffic will ultimately use the NECR-P&W routing if the merger is approved. Interestingly, this is what Orville Harrold wanted to do 20 or so years ago when he tried to acquire the Central Vermont from CN but was outbid by Railtex, and some 100 years ago, Charles Melville Hays was attempting to build the Southern New England Railway to connect Providence with the CV.

[F-line to Dudley via Park]

Aren't NECR & Pan-Am in a hostile relationship over trackage fees? Will this spillover into the P&W?

Doubtful. The STB is adjudicating that case, so there will be some final resolution to the Conn River VT rate dispute long before this merger even goes in front of the STB.

NS is far more concerned about CN establishing a competitive lane into New England and what it needs to do to shore up the Patriot Corridor to Ayer before CN starts making tangible inroads. Any petty disputes about who pays what to run to Bellows Falls will be forgotten in a nanosecond upon resolution of the case. It's all about Class I vs. Class I for them, which means nothing steals focus from their corridor to Ayer.