Genesee & Wyoming to lease rail line in southwest Georgia from Norfolk Southern

GREENWICH, CT, Nov. 2, 2011 (Business Wire) - Genesee & Wyoming Inc. (GWI) announced today that its newly formed subsidiary, the Hilton & Albany Railroad, Inc. (HAL), has signed an agreement with Norfolk Southern Railway Company (NS) to lease and operate a 56-mile segment of NS track that runs from Hilton, Georgia, to Albany, Georgia.

Operations are expected to begin in January 2012. The HAL is expected to handle approximately 12,000 carloads annually, primarily overhead traffic between NS and GWI's Bay Line, Chattahoochee Bay, and Chattahoochee Industrial railroads. In addition, the HAL will serve several local agricultural and aggregate customers in southwest Georgia.

GWI owns and operates short line and regional freight railroads and provides railcar switching services in the United States, Australia, Canada, the Netherlands and Belgium. In addition, we operate the Tarcoola to Darwin rail line, which links the Port of Darwin to the Australian interstate rail network in South Australia. Operations currently include 64 railroads organized in 10 regions, with more than 7,500 miles of owned and leased track and approximately 1,400 additional miles under track access arrangements. We provide rail service at 17 ports in North America and Europe and perform contract coal loading and railcar switching for industrial customers.