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- Short Line
Achievement Award to RRVW
Railroad Recognized for Achievement by BNSF
FORT WORTH, Texas, October 26, 2006 – Wahpeton, North Dakota-based Red River Valley and Western Railroad (RRVW) has received a Short-Line Achievement Award from BNSF Railway Company. The award was presented to RRVW representatives Bill Drusch, chief executive officer, and Sharon Trudell, vice president of marketing, by Pete Rickershauser, BNSF’s vice president, Network Development, at BNSF’s eleventh annual Short-Line Conference October 16 at Fort Worth.
“RRVW has invested in track, equipment and service; and has grown its business consistently over its 19-year history,” said Rickershauser. Rickershauser noted that RRVW has played a leadership role in developing strategically located grain shuttle facilities that have increased traffic volumes and the portion of agricultural products moving by rail.
“All of us at Red River Valley & Western Railroad are extremely proud and honored to have been selected by our partner, BNSF for this prestigious award,” said Trudell. “Our success is based on three things: our dedicated employees, our loyal customers and our partnership with BNSF. It is this cooperative effort that has led to the success of Red River Valley & Western Railroad. We owe them all a world of thanks.”
RRVW began operations in 1987 and currently owns and operates 517 route miles of track. It handles more than 45,000 carloads annually, which is more than double the volume at start up. This increase is attributed in part to the railroad’s more frequent service, the addition of local markets, and development of modern grain shuttle loading facilities. RRVW’s ongoing effort to find new and expanded markets for customers has also helped bring new business to the railroad. RRVW presently serves more than 60 customers, including 6 grain shuttle facilities and 35 grain elevators.
Short-Line Achievement Awards also were presented to Big Horn Divide and Wyoming Railroad of Riverton, Wyoming, and Northern Lines Railway of St. Cloud, Minnesota.
“All of our short line connections have played a role in our joint success in 2006,” said Rickershauser. “These awards recognize the resourcefulness and achievements of three short lines that have gone beyond our expectations through innovation, determination and hard work.”
BNSF connects with more than 200 short lines, regional carriers and switch carriers. They operate almost 19,000 miles of track. Through September of this year, BNSF shipments that originated or terminated on short lines accounted for 17.5 percent of BNSF revenues. Of BNSF revenues attributed to shipments originating or terminating on short lines, 48 percent were Industrial Products commodities while 24 percent were Agricultural and related products.
“Short lines provide intense customer focus, resourcefulness, operational flexibility, and a local presence in their communities,” said Rickershauser. “We see their role expanding in the future as they do more gathering and distribution, and assemble blocks of cars for integration with BNSF’s network of main-line trains.”
A subsidiary of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation (NYSE:BNI), BNSF Railway operates one of the largest railroad networks in North America, with about 32,000 route miles in 28 states and two Canadian provinces. 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 low-sulphur coal to generate about ten percent of the electricity produced in the United States. BNSF Railway is an industry leader in Web-enabling a variety of customer transactions at www.bnsf.com.
- Thompson Promoted to President and
CEO
Andrew Thompson assumes new responsibilities.
The Red River Valley & Western has promoted Andrew J. Thompson to president and chief operating officer of the 517-mile regional railroad, effective April 14. Based at Wahpeton, N.D., Mr. Thompson has served as senior vice president and general manager since joining RRVW March 1, 2005. He reports to William F. Drusch, chief executive officer.
Mr. Thompson’s railroad experience began in 1968 as a switchman and yardmaster for Burlington Northern at Seattle, Wash. In 1974, he transferred to St. Paul, Minn. as a management trainee, subsequently advancing to assistant trainmaster at Lincoln, Neb., trainmaster at Helena, Mont., and assistant superintendent, superintendent, and president of the Lake Superior Terminal at Superior, Wis. He became division superintendent at Springfield, Mo. in 1982 and was assistant general manager at Springfield from 1983 until 1987, when he was promoted to assistant vice president Transportation at Overland Park, Kans. Mr. Thompson became division general manager at Fort Worth, Texas in 1988.
Transferring to the Marketing Department in 1992 as vice president Aluminum, Non-Ferrous Metals & Ores, he was named general manager Merchandise Operations in 1994 and vice president Packaged Commodities in 1995.
Prior to joining the RRVW, Mr. Thompson raised and trained horses competing in jumping cross-country and stadium courses, and dressage in the United States and Canada.
Mr. Thompson has a BA in Business from the University of Washington, Seattle.
The Red River Valley & Western started in July 1987 over track acquired from BNSF in central and southeastern North Dakota and western Minnesota and was recently selected by Railway Age magazine as “2005 Regional Railroad of the Year.”
RRVW Named Railroad of the Year
Honor given by Railway Age
Railway Age magazine has named Cedar Rapids and Iowa City
Railway Co. (Cedar Rapids, Iowa) as 2005 Short Line Railroad of
the Year, and the Red River Valley & Western Railroad Co. at
Wahpeton, North Dakota as 2005 Regional Railroad of the Year.
The awards will be presented at the American Short Line and
Regional Railroad Association’s annual meeting in
“This year’s winners were selected from a pool of 34 strong finalists—a Railway Age record,” said Robert P. DeMarco, senior vice president and group publisher of the magazine’s parent company, Simmons-Boardman Publishing Corp. “Their dedications and tenacity – never accepting ‘no’ for an answer – helped make them standouts. They maximized growth opportunities wherever possible to increase customer business volumes.”
Both railroads have been recognized previously in the Railway
Age competition.
“These outstanding performers wowed us again, and deserve top honors,” DeMarco said.
The 517-mile Red River Valley & Western (RRVW) is being recognized by Railway Age for outstanding business achievements through Class 1 partnership, marketing and customer service efforts. William F. Drusch, RRVW’s President and CEO, submitted the winning entry.
In the late 1990’s, the grain industry began a trend toward
110-car unit trains loaded solely at shuttle facilities, and
RRVW’s primary connection, BNSF, maintained a policy of locating
such facilities only along its main lines. Facing an
uncertain future, RRVW undertook a bold program in 1999 that
reversed the potential loss of its largest commodity and the
likely demise of many small online elevators in
RRVW and its customers spent more then $20 million on facilities and track upgrades to accommodate 286,000-pound gross rail load cars. The regional also invested in a fleet of 105 covered hopper cars to handle grain locally. In 2004, 12,237 carloads – or 45 percent of RRVW’s total grain shipments – were handled in BNSF shuttle trains. Of this, 3,156 came from small elevators. Without RRVW’s determination to keep pace with grain transportation changes and ability to earn BNSF’s confidence, much of this traffic would have been lost to trucks or other rail competitors. The project has kept more than 10,000 trucks off rural highways to the benefit of the North Dakota Department of Transportation.
“RRVW has demonstrated exemplary handling of our shuttle trains,” said R. Mark Schmidt, assistant vice president-short line development for BNSF. “As a result of hard work and aggressive marketing, RRVW’s grain volume tendered to BNSF has risen significantly.”
“RRVW rose to the challenge,” added Sonia Meehl, owner/manager, of country grain elevator Crete Grain, which opened a new elevator along the regional’s lines last year. “We could not and would not have done it without the help we received from the RRVW.”
CRANDIC is being honored for its exceptional achievements in productivity, safety, and customer service. The winning entry was submitted by CRANDIC President Paul Treangen. Celebrating 100 years of service in 2004, the former high speed electric interurban is now one of the nation’s premier short lines, maintaining more than 100 miles of track and providing more than $18 million in annual revenue to its parent company, Alliant Energy.
The awards will be announced in the March issue of Railway Age.
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- RRVW received the Occupational Safety Merit Award
from
the North Dakota Safety Council, Inc.
The award is for obtaining an occupational illness incident rate that is equal to or less than the national average in the railroad's standard industrial classification.