| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Rail transport |
| Founded | 1981 (as rail division of Guilford Transportation Industries) 2006 (name changed from Guilford Rail System to Pan Am Railways) |
| Founder(s) | Timothy Mellon |
| Headquarters | North Billerica, Massachusetts, United States of America |
| Area served | Northeast |
| Key people | Timothy Mellon David Fink David A. Fink |
| Employees | 750 (2011) |
| Parent | Pan Am Systems |
| Subsidiaries | Boston and Maine Corporation Maine Central Railroad Company Portland Terminal Company Springfield Terminal Railway Company |
| Website | panamrailways.com |
Pan Am Railways, Inc. (PAR), known as Guilford Rail System (GRS) before March 2006, is a holding company that owns and operates Class II regional railroads covering northern New England from Mattawamkeag, Maine to Rotterdam Junction, New York. The primary subsidiaries of Pan Am Railways are Boston and Maine Corporation (reporting mark BM), Maine Central Railroad Company (reporting mark MEC), Portland Terminal Company (reporting mark PTM), and Springfield Terminal Railway Company (reporting mark ST); BM and MEC are operated under lease by ST.
Pan Am Railways is headquartered in North Billerica, Massachusetts (a village within the town of Billerica).[1][2] It is a subsidiary of Portsmouth, New Hampshire-based Pan Am Systems, formerly known as Guilford Transportation Industries (GTI). Guilford bought the name, colors and logo of Pan American World Airways in 1998.
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Guilford Transportation Industries was formed in 1977.[3] The company entered the railroad business in 1981 with its purchase of the Maine Central Railroad Company from U.S. Filter Corporation. This was followed by its 1983 purchase of the Boston and Maine Corporation, and in 1984 it purchased the Delaware and Hudson Railway (DH). The combined MEC-BM-DH network sprawled from the border between Maine and New Brunswick to Boston, west to Albany, north to Montreal, and south (via trackage rights) to New York, Philadelphia, and Washington.
The passage of the Staggers Rail Act allowed Guilford to execute a business plan unlike those of earlier railroads in New England. It revolved around the idea of buying up as many local railroads as possible, to create full horizontal integration over New England and the northern Mid-Atlantic states, gaining efficiencies of scale.
Following the purchases of MEC, BM, and DH, Guilford began several major changes to the operations of these railroads and their workforces. One of the first changes took place with new management, followed by consolidation of locomotive repair work at the MEC shops in Waterville, Maine, resulting in repainting of locomotives from the predecessor companies into Guilford corporate colors.
In the mid-1980s, Guilford began to eliminate marginal low-density routes, particularly in Maine. Fully one-third of MEC trackage was eliminated, including the Mountain Division from Windham, Maine to St. Johnsbury, Vermont; the Rockland Branch from Brunswick to Rockland, Maine; the Calais Branch from Bangor to Calais, Maine; and the “Lower Road” from Augusta to Brunswick.
When the Calais Branch was cut, service was kept on a now-orphaned section of trackage running between Calais and a pulp mill in nearby Woodland; these tracks ran for several miles through New Brunswick, Canada, and their only remaining connection to the North American rail network was with Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) at St. Stephen, New Brunswick. Following the Calais Branch abandonment, CPR agreed to haul MEC traffic from the interchange at Calais to an interchange with MEC at Mattawamkeag. In spite of the fact that new labor agreements had removed the requirement to use a caboose at the end of each train, and crew size had been reduced from as many as five employees to just two, Guilford leased the operation of the remaining portions of the Calais branch to its tiny Springfield Terminal Railway Company subsidiary, which had much more advantageous labor agreements.
The Springfield Terminal Railway Company was a 6-mile (10 km) shortline connection from Springfield, Vermont, to Charlestown, New Hampshire,[4] that was owned by the Boston and Maine Corporation.
From 1897 to 1921, it was known as the Springfield Electric,[5] and was converted from electric to diesel power in 1956. Passenger service lasted until 1947, and freight service was discontinued in 1984.[6]
The ST had once been an interurban, and following typical interurban and shortline practice, it had a union agreement that allowed fewer crew members per train and operation without cabooses. By the time Guilford took over, the operation had been cut back to a stub of a few hundred yards serving one customer and operating infrequently. The tracks have since been removed and the route is now a rails to trails bike/walking path.
In 1985, Guilford entered into an agreement with Norfolk Southern Railway to run trains to St. Louis. Norfolk Southern was attempting to win approval of a plan to purchase Conrail from the United States government and proposed allowing Guilford to lease Conrail lines to St. Louis in order to restore competition that would be lost in the merger. The plan would have allowed Guilford to use the Conrail mainline from Toledo to Ridgeway, Ohio and from Crestline, Ohio to St. Louis. Guilford would also purchase other Conrail track for $35 million.[7] Norfolk Southern did not prevail in its attempt to purchase Conrail in 1985, and the Guilford plan was dropped.
More branch lines were subsequently leased to Springfield Terminal, and eventually all of the BM and MEC were operated by ST. This saved Guilford money, but angered labor. In 1986, Guilford endured a lengthy and extremely bitter strike by its workforce, which required the intervention of President Ronald Reagan's administration. In 1988, Guilford declared the Delaware and Hudson Railway bankrupt. DH employees took it over, with the New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway managing it. The employees then sold out in 1991 to the Canadian Pacific Railway.
In the years that followed, Guilford forced many management and salary changes, resulting in other strikes over wages and work rules.
The paper industry provides the largest source of business, both inbound chemicals, clay and pulp (although Pan Am has lost a lot of that business to trucks), and outbound paper. Rail had a slightly more than 50% market share for outbound paper shipments from Maine, most of which used Pan Am (truck and boat carry the balance). By comparison, rail has a better than 80% market share from mills in Wisconsin (primarily served by Wisconsin Central Transportation). A 2008 report issued by the American Society of Civil Engineers rated Maine at 48th of the 50 states in volume of freight traffic that moves by rail.[8] The Maine Motor Transport Association web page reports that trucks transport 94% of total manufactured tonnage in Maine.[9]
In some years, Pan Am rail traffic had trended up somewhat, following national rail industry trends. However, as of recent times, Pan Am rail traffic has dropped considerably. A report issued by the Maine Department of Transportation listed rail traffic on the Maine Central Railroad as being 162,658 loads in 1972.[10] As of 2008, Pan Am rail traffic over the remaining portions of the MEC was estimated to be no more than 69,000 loads.[11] Interestingly, in this same time period, the Association of American Railroads estimates that rail traffic in the United States has more than doubled.[12]
In 1998, Guilford bought the name, colors and logo of Pan American World Airways.
In March 2006, Guilford Transportation Industries changed its name to Pan Am Systems, and Guilford Rail System was rebranded as Pan Am Railways.
In March 2009, Pan Am was ordered to pay the largest corporate criminal fine in Massachusetts history — $500,000 — due to the company's violation of state and federal environmental laws and regulations.[13]
As of 2011, Pan Am employs 750 people and has a $40 million payroll.[14]
On May 15, 2008, Norfolk Southern Corp. announced that it had come to an agreement with Pan Am Railways to "create an improved rail route between Albany, New York, and the Boston, Massachusetts area called the 'Patriot Corridor'." [15][16][17]
On March 12, 2009, the Surface Transportation Board approved the deal.[18] Each of the two companies own 50% of a new company known as Pan Am Southern (PAS). PAR's trackage between Ayer, Massachusetts and Mechanicville, New York was transferred to PAS and continues to be operated and maintained by PAR's Springfield Terminal Railway subsidiary. NS transferred to PAS cash and property valued at $140 million.
Planned improvements to the route include track and signal upgrades, and expansion of terminals, including construction of new automotive and intermodal terminals in Ayer, MA and Mechanicville, NY.[19]
The main line runs from Mattawamkeag, Maine, to Mechanicville, New York, via the lines of the following former companies:
| Numbers | Reporting marks |
Type | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 007 | MEC | EMD SW1 | 1 |
| 1, 2 | PAR | GMD FP9 | 2 |
| 45, 51, 52, 54, 62, 71, 72, 77 |
ST | EMD GP9 | 8 |
| 209, 210 | ST | EMD GP35 | 2 |
| 300-303, 305-310, 312-321 |
MEC | EMD GP40 | 20 |
| 326-328, 330, 332-335, 337, 340, 342 |
BM | EMD GP40 | 11 |
| 343-354, 370, 371, 373, 374, 376-382 |
MEC | EMD GP40 | 23 |
| 500-508 | MEC | GMD GP40-2L(W) | 9 |
| 509-519 | MEC | GMD GP40-2(W) | 11 |
| 600-619 | MEC | EMD SD40-2 | 20 |
| 643 | ST | EMD SD26 | 1 |
| 690 | BM | EMD SD39 | 1 |
| Fleet Total: | 109 |
In summer 2011, Pan Am Railways repainted an EMD GP9 locomotive (Springfield Terminal #77) into the maroon and gold "Minuteman" paint scheme used on Boston & Maine locomotives in the 1950s.[20] In December 2011, Springfield Terminal #52 (also a GP9) was repainted into Maine Central's 1950s-era "Pine Tree Route" green and gold paint scheme.[21]
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