Genesee & Wyoming Railroads Earn Rail Industry's Top Safety Honors

GREENWICH, Conn., May 19, 2010 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Genesee & Wyoming Inc. (GWI) (NYSE: GWR) announced today that its railroads have earned the industry's top awards for safety performance in 2009.

GWI's Buffalo & Pittsburgh Railroad (B&P) yesterday won the E.H. Harriman Gold Award for the best employee safety record among railroads working less than four million employee-hours in 2009. The B&P is a Class II freight railroad with 368 miles of track in western New York and Pennsylvania. Its 200 employees have not had an FRA-reportable injury since 2007.

Earlier this month, the B&P also received two President's Awards from the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association (ASLRRA) for both the best safety performance in the 250,000+ employee-hours category and for the most hours of injury-free operation in 2009.

GWI's Willamette & Pacific Railroad (W&P) won the ASLRRA President's Award for best 2009 safety performance in the 150,000-250,000 employee-hours category. The W&P is a Class III freight railroad with 184 miles of track in Oregon. Its 100 employees have worked injury-free for more than four years.

GWI's Illinois & Midland Railroad (I&M) won the President's Award for the 50,000-150,000 employee-hours category. The I&M, a Class III freight railroad with 83 employees and 97 miles of track in Illinois, was injury-free in 2009.

In addition, 40 of GWI's U.S. railroads received Jake Awards with Distinction from the ASLRRA for completing 2009 with zero FRA-reportable injuries. Overall, 52 of 62 GWI railroads were injury-free in 2009. The combined injury-frequency rate for GWI railroads in 2009 was 0.74 per 200,000 employee-hours, nearly five times better than the peer group average and more than twice as good as the Class I average.

GWI owns and operates short line and regional freight railroads in the United States, Canada, Australia and the Netherlands. Operations currently include 62 railroads organized in nine regions, with approximately 6,000 miles of owned and leased track and approximately 3,400 additional miles under track access arrangements. GWI provides rail service at 16 ports in North America and Europe and performs contract coal loading and railcar switching for industrial customers.

SOURCE Genesee & Wyoming Inc.