A subsidiary of Batavia-based GVT Rail heralded with 'Short Line of the Year' award
Press release:
Norfolk, Va. – For the second time this year, the Delaware-Lackawanna Railroad (DL) has been chosen for a prestigious freight rail industry award. On June 11, Norfolk Southern Corporation presented the DL, a Genesee Valley Transportation (GVT Rail) subsidiary, with its Short Line of the Year award.
The corporate headquarters of GVT Rail is on Mill Street in the City of Batavia.
In bestowing this honor upon the DL, Norfolk Southern identified the carrier’s operational and business development teams, respectively and collectively, for conscientious customer service and commitment to growth.
“Our partnership with the Delaware-Lackawanna Railroad has resulted in significant growth across multiplecommodities and service improvements for both manifest and unit trains,” said Mike Moen, Norfolk Southern Senior Short Line development manager. “Their cooperation and efforts have contributed to amore efficient interchange and an improved service offering for our mutual customers.”
The recognition from Norfolk Southern follows the DL receiving the American Shortline & Regional Railroad Association (ASLRRA) Business Development Award for 2019. Presented at the organization’s annual conference, the ASLRRA award spoke to the DL’s boots-on-the-ground, "one carload at a time" growth strategy.
This strategy has created traffic volume growth of 510 percent in the 25 years since GVT Rail first came to the Lackawanna Valley.
This quarter-century of growth could not have come to pass without the partnership between the DL and the Pennsylvania Northeast Regional Railroad Authority (PNRRA), rail trackage owner and regional authority with which the DL is the contracted operator.
"The public-private model forged in Northeastern Pennsylvania has become a model increasingly used across the United States to save rail trackage that has been abandoned and was being liquidated by privatesector railroads,” said Larry Malski, PNRRA president. “The progress continues in Northeastern Pennsylvania, as evidenced by a 29 percent increase in carloads during the first four months of 2019 on this trackage."
Through these partnerships, and through public-good relationships with entities such as the Scranton Chamber of Commerce and Pocono Mountain Economic Development Corporation, freight rail is at the throttle of the post-anthracite economic rebirth of Northeastern Pennsylvania.
The GVT Rail and Delaware-Lackawanna teams wish to thank Norfolk Southern Corporation for this recognition.
ABOUT GVT RAIL
Genesee Valley Transportation Co. Inc. (GVT Rail) is a privately owned shortline and regional rail corporation based out of Batavia. Founded in 1985, GVT Rail has grown from a five-mile spur in greater Buffalo to a 318-mile network of five subsidiary railroads in two states.
Over three-and-a-half decades, we’ve set an imprint as an industry-recognized leader in business development and “friendly, customized service.” Be it restoring service to an existing industry or establishing truck-train transloading services, the GVT Rail team is always on the lookout for new opportunities to contribute to the economic renaissance of the communities and regions that we serve.
