Pan
Am Railways - (en)
Pan Am Railways (PAR), known as Guilford Rail System (GRS) before
March 2006, is a Class 2 railroad covering northern New England from
Mattawamkeag, Maine to Rotterdam Junction, New York. The primary
subsidiaries of PAR are the Maine Central Railroad (MEC), the Boston
and Maine Railroad (BM), and Springfield Terminal Railway (ST). PAR is
a subsidiary of Pan Am Systems, formerly known as Guilford
Transportation Industries (GTI). GTI bought the name, colors and logo
of the Pan Am airline in 1998.
Overview
GTI developed as a child of railroad deregulation in the United States.
The passage of the Staggers Rail Act allowed GTI 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.
GTI started by purchasing the MEC in 1981 from U.S. Filter
Corporation. This was followed by its 1983 purchase of the BM and in
1984, it purchased the Delaware and Hudson Railroad (DH). Its network
sprawled from the border between Maine and New Brunswick to Boston,
and west to Albany, north to Montreal, and south (via trackage rights)
to New York, Philadelphia, and Washington.
Following the purchases of MEC, BM and DH, GTI 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 at Waterville,
Maine, resulting in repainting of locomotives from the predecessor
companies into GTI corporate colors.
In the mid-1980s, GTI began to eliminate marginal low-density routes,
particularly in Maine. Fully one-third of MEC trackage was eliminated,
including the "Mountain Division" from Portland, Maine to
St. Johnsbury, Vermont; the "Rockland Branch" from
Brunswick, Maine to Rockland, Maine; the "Calais Branch"
from Bangor, Maine to Calais, Maine; and the "Lower Road"
from Augusta, Maine to Brunswick, Maine.
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, Maine; 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, Maine. To avoid costly labor
union agreements, which would make the Calais-Woodland service
uneconomic, GTI leased the operation of this route to its tiny
Springfield Terminal subsidiary, which had much more advantageous
labor agreements.
Springfield Terminal Railway was a 6-mile shortline connection from
Springfield, Vermont to Charlestown, New Hampshire that was owned by
the B&M. It 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.
Springfield Terminal Railway
EMD GP40 #332 Pulls out of Deerfield, Massachusetts. 2005More branch
lines were subsequently leased to ST, and eventually all of the
B&M and MEC were operated by ST. This saved GTI money, but angered
labor. In 1986, GTI endured a lengthy and extremely bitter strike by
its workforce, which required the intervention of President Ronald
Reagan's administration. In 1988, GTI declared the D&H "bankrupt"
and the employees of the railroad took it over, with Susquehanna
managing it. The employees then sold out in 1991 to the Canadian
Pacific Railway.
In the years that followed, GTI forced many management and salary
changes, resulting in other strikes over wages and work rules.
A great many rail customers stopped using rail at the time of the
strike, especially companies more dependent on reliable, consistent
service. Many current customers allege that PAR service is very
poor.[citation needed] It should be noted that the rail industry in
general does not have a very good reputation for service, but PAR's
reputation appears to be worse. In addition, customers have alleged
that PAR has retaliated against them after they have
complained.[citation needed] The company has maintained that it has a
good working relationship with its customers and that there are no
major problems.
The paper industry provides the largest source of business, both
inbound chemicals, clay and pulp (although PAR has lost a lot of that
business to truck) and outbound paper. Rail has a slightly more than
50% market share for outbound paper shipments from Maine, most of
which must use PAR (truck and boat carry the balance). By comparison,
rail has a better than 80% market share from mills in Wisconsin (primarily
served by the Wisconsin Central Railroad).
In recent years, PAR rail traffic has trended up somewhat, following
national rail industry trends. PAR posted $150M in sales during 2005.
Routes
The main line runs from Mattawamkeag, Maine to Mechanicville, New York
via the lines of the following former companies:
Maine Central Railroad: European and North American Railway, Maine
Central Railroad main line
Boston and Maine Railroad: B&M main line, Lowell and Andover
Railroad
Boston and Lowell Railroad (B&M subsidiary): Nashua and Lowell
Railroad, Stony Brook Railroad
Fitchburg Railroad (B&M subsidiary): Fitchburg Railroad main line,
Vermont and Massachusetts Railroad, Troy and Greenfield Railroad,
Southern Vermont Railroad, Troy and Boston Railroad, Boston, Hoosac
Tunnel and Western Railway.
