Iowa Pacific Proposes Scheduled Oklahoma Passenger Service
IOWA PACIFIC’S EASTERN FLYER passenger excursions ran over the Stillwater Central Railroad (SLWC)’s ex-St. Louis-San Francisco Sooner Sub between Sapulpa (a Tulsa suburb) and Midwest City (an Oklahoma City suburb), Okla., on February 9, 15, and 23, 2014. They were the first passenger trains over the line since the Frisco discontin- ued the St. Louis-Oklahoma City Oklahoman in May 1967. The Iowa Pacific consist was powered by a pair of SLWC SD40-2s. Iowa Pacific is one of four railroads that have submitted bids to purchase and operate the state-owned former Frisco trackage which is currently leased by Stillwater Central. BNSF Railway is said to be the state’s favorite, but local sentiment favors Iowa Pacific, which has expressed interest in running scheduled passenger service between Tulsa and Oklahoma City. The other bidders are Watco, whose SLWC currently operates the
Montréal, Maine & Atlantic
CENTRAL MAINE & QUÉBEC RAILWAY: Rail Acquisition Holdings’ Central Maine & Québec Railway (CMQR) has asked the U.S. Surface Transportation Board to expedite its acquisition of the bankrupt Montréal, Maine & Atlantic Railway’s lines in Maine and Ver- mont. On February 12 CMQR notified MMA employees that the new company would be hiring with the goal of a March startup. The STB requires 60-day notice; CMQR says that the railroad’s situation is so precarious that it wants to begin operations as early as March 17 and has asked the STB to waive the 60-day requirement. Another reason to expedite the takeover is that MMA Canada’s insurance ex- pires on March 31. In addition, the company has clarified its relationship with Fortress Investment Group. CMQR is a subsidiary of Railway Acquisition Holdings, which is owned by Fortress World- wide Transportation and Infrastructure Gen-
line, and Fortress Investment Group. The excursions’ success prompted Iowa Pacific to ask Oklahoma Gov- ernor Mary Fallin for a five-year contract to provide scheduled passen- ger service over the route. In order to stay off trackage operated by BNSF, shuttles would take passengers from the endpoints into down- town Tulsa and Oklahoma City. Iowa Pacific says it would begin service in May with two daily round trips. Frequency would be increased to six round trips by October between Sapulpa and Midwest City, with two ad- ditional round trips running directly into Tulsa over BNSF trackage. The current trip time over SLWC of two hours and 50 minutes would be reduced to two hours and 15 minutes after curve superelevation is in- creased and trackwork permits higher main line speeds. Currently the line is good for 59 m.p.h. passenger operations.
eral Partnership, an investment fund owned by a Fortress affiliate. CMQR is headed by John Giles, a former
CSX railroader who also ran Great Lakes Transportation and the RailAmerica short line group when it was owned by Fortress. GLT in- cluded the former United States Steel rail- roads and marine facilities: Bessemer & Lake Erie Railroad; Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range Railway; Great Lakes Fleet Inc.; and Pitts- burgh & Conneaut Dock Co. GLT was pur- chased by Canadian National in 2004. In 2007, Fortress acquired a majority interest in Rail- America and recruited Giles to lead the com- pany until it was sold to Genesee & Wyoming Industries in 2012.
On January 22 Railroad Acquisitions Hold- ings said it would pay $14.25 million for MMA and its Canadian link, MMA of Canada. MMA declared bankruptcy in August 2013 after a unit oil train ran away, derailed, and exploded in downtown Lac-Mégantic, Québec, on July 6. The conflagration destroyed the town’s
CORRECTION: We misidentified the state in Bruce Kelly’s photo of the Citirail ES44AC’s in the February issue; it was taken at Ramsey, Idaho. And since the train’s symbol was not known, there’s no evidence that it would have continued east over Montana Rail Link.
26 MARCH 2014 •
RAILFAN.COM
business district and killed 47 people. The deal was approved by courts in Maine and Québec on January 24. While MMA bank- ruptcy trustee Robert Keach said more than a dozen companies had expressed interest in ac- quiring all or part of the railroad, only three bids were finally entered. In addition to the Fortress/RAH bid, J.D. Irving’s Eastern Maine Railway and Springfield Terminal Railway (Pan Am) jointly offered $8 million for MMA’s lines in Maine, and the Vermont Rail System’s Washington County Railroad offered to buy the branch running from New- port, Vt., to Brookport, Québec, for $750,000. In the end, Fortress’s sole bid for the entire property carried the day, as Keach had stressed his desire to sell the whole railroad for continued operation. Fortress reportedly has had its eye on
MMA for some time; its former RailAmerica unit is said to have made an offer for the com- pany in the past but was rebuffed. In addition to providing access to the port of Saint John, New Brunswick, via the Irving railroads, MMA directly serves the deepwater port of Searsport, Maine, which is expected to be im- proved and enlarged in the near future. That’s
ANTHONY WESSEL
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