April 2014
| Business World Magazine | 43
MEARS:
We’re a good mix. We have a lot
of the regional, or medium-sized railroads,
as members – most of them, or nearly all of
them as far as I know, and the short lines, or
small railroads, whatever you want to call
them, as well as a good mix. Now one thing
of interest about, I believe, a quarter of the
railroads are owned by what we call holding
companies and that’s basically a conglom-
erate that owns more than one. There’s one
very large conglomerate called Genesee and
Wyoming that owns over 100 short lines and
there are some lesser ones. I think Watco op-
erates somewhere between 20 and 30. And
so that represents, I would say, a quarter to
one-third of the short lines that are run by
these holding companies. The remaining
two-thirds are pretty much independent.
BW: Would Genesee and Wyoming then
be a member of your organization or would
the individual railroads be?
MEARS:
The individual railroads would be.
Of course, we’re closely in touch with Gen-
esee and Wyoming, because they’re of con-
siderable importance.
BW: When a short line is considering
membership, what are they typically look-
ing for from you?
MEARS:
What we do is provide representa-
tion for them in addressing national issues.
