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NEWS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contacts: Ed McKechnie Joseph A. Faust
Watco Companies BNSF
(620)
231-2230 (816) 867-6427
TIBR Announces Lease of Texas Line from BNSF
PITTSBURG, KANSAS and FORT WORTH, TEXAS – July 3, 2004 – The Timber Rock Railroad (TIBR) will add 122 miles of track between Silsbee and Somerville, Texas. TIBR is leasing the line from The Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Company (BNSF) and operations will begin Saturday, July 3, 2004. This additional TIBR trackage will serve customers in the towns of Voth, Lumberton, Seth, Silsbee, Kountze, Dies, Honey Island, Lelavale, Bragg, Votaw, Fuqua, Milvid, Romayor, Dolen, Rayburn, Hightower, Seaman, Cleveland, Fostoria, Security, Timber, Waukegan, Youens, Beach, Conroe, Honea, Keenan and Montgomery, Texas.
The TIBR was created in 1998 and with this expansion will operate 290 miles of track. The TIBR interchanges with the BNSF at Tenaha, Kirbyville, Beaumont and Somerville, Texas, and with the Kansas City Southern Railroad at Deridder, Louisiana. The TIBR is owned by Watco Companies, Inc. (Watco), a Pittsburg, Kansas, based company, which operates nine short line railroads and operates in 23 states.
Rick Webb, Watco Companies, Inc. President and CEO said this transaction has been many years in the making.
“This agreement brings culmination to more than 20 years of hard work for us,” he said. “Watco’s roots are in DeRidder, Louisiana, where we began as an industrial switching location. Our goals back then were the same as they are today — to provide the customer with the right car, at the right time, in the right condition and at the right price. From that one switching location we have grown to what we are today — a multi-service transportation company with locations in 23 states,” Webb said.
“We have an excellent relationship with the BNSF that is built upon mutual respect. The BNSF continues to lead the industry in providing customer service and the expanding services to our customers’ needs. We very much appreciate the opportunity to do business with one of America’s great railroads,” Webb said.
“BNSF consistently reviews its network to ensure the most efficient use of assets and to provide the most effective service for its customers,” said BNSF’s Pete Rickershauser, vice president, Network Development. “Our past experience with the Watco organization and the Timber Rock Railroad Company has been extremely positive. Our agreements with Watco and Timber Rock, in conjunction with BNSF’s extensive network capabilities, provide the operating flexibility and local business development focus to serve the customer base in the area. We look forward to working with Timber Rock and Watco to continue building rail business opportunities for the customers and communities we serve."
The TIBR’s marketing team has already begun introducing the quality services it can provide to those in the expanded service area, along with the team members who will support the services. The TIBR team has already successfully met most of the customers along the new line, face to face.
“Our goal is to provide quality transportation solutions to customers in deep East Texas and the Gulf Coast. The only way to do that is to meet with the customers and define what quality service means to them,” Webb said. “Our core goals of improved customer satisfaction; improved profitability; and doing both for the long-term, lay the foundation for our focus—providing the best transportation package we can.”
Printable maps of the TIBR are available at www.watcocompanies.com ; click on Railroads and then on the Timber Rock Railroad.
A subsidiary of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation (NYSE:BNI), BNSF operates one of the largest railroad networks in North America, with about 32,500 route miles covering 28 states and two Canadian provinces. BNSF is an industry leader in Web-enabling a variety of customer transactions at www.bnsf.com. The railway is among the world's top transporters of intermodal traffic, moves more grain than any other American railroad, transports the components of many of the products we depend on daily, and hauls enough coal to generate about ten percent of the electricity produced in the United States.
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