Eastern Railroad Discussion > STB OKs Acquisition of W&LE

  The U.S. Surface Transportation Board has approved Fortress Investment Group’s acquisition of the Wheeling & Lake Erie and Akron Barberton Cluster Railway. The acquisition will be effective Dec. 26.
The STB said in a statement that the two properties will join six Class III railroads already in the Fortress portfolio through holding company Transtar. The statement said there were no filings in opposition to the purchase.

The W&LE operates 982 of track miles in Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Maryland, while the ABC operates 84 miles in Akron.
In granting the Fortress request for an exemption from prior-approval requirements of the transaction, the board agreed with a Fortress contention that the move will enhance the two railroads’ access to capital and therefore aid in strategic investment decisions and growth opportunities, and says there will be no significant impacts on competition.  
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/02/25 08:39 by pt199.

Agreed on that but if Fortress has a half a mind to make this work (and it seems like they do) I sure
wouldn't stand in their way.

Out 

A friend of mine told me in October that he'd heard that the Wheeling had renewed its access over CSX east of Connellsville, PA.  I'm not sure whether the renewal covers just haulage rights or is full-blown trackage rights.  Secondly, I understood that the original rights had gone only as far as Hagerstown, but he thought that the renewal went all the way to Baltimore.  W&LE hasn't used them in many years.  I believe the last time was when the Sparrows Point complex near Baltimore was in the process of being shut down, and the plant owner had arranged for the Wheeling to move stockpiled mineral or coke traffic away from the moribund facility.  Earlier, NS had undercut the Wheeling on grain traffic from Northern Ohio that the regional had been delivering to the NS at Hagerstown.

When I questioned why the W&LE would renew the rights over CSX since they hadn't been using them, my friend replied that with new ownership and likely new management about to take over, the railroad decided it best to keep the rights in the event that new business could be generated, rather than give up the access and be sorry later.

Jeff Gast
Greenwood, Indiana  


 

Connellsville to Hagerstown is true trackage rights, although not used in years. Those were WLE crews operating the trains, qualified over the route.

The Connellsville to Baltimore ore trains were nothing more than run-through power operated by CSX crews.
They did not use the Hagerstown trackage rights.

Posted from Android

Would the W&LE have any interest in acquiring the CF&E (ex PRR) to access Chicago?

GN1969 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Would the W&LE have any interest in acquiring the
> CF&E (ex PRR) to access Chicago?
They probably would, but I seriously doubt G&W would want to let go of it, and they just lease the line from CSX anyway. CSX may have a right in the lease agreement to prohibit transfer to another party. As much I would love to see it, I doubt CSX would feel the same way.

Posted from iPhone

Fortress could buy G&W and really get into the railroad businesss. Throw out that OR thing and
there's real money in railroads. Might not impress with the ratio but the available cash can be quite
large considering a decent effort.

Out