Genesee & Wyoming's traffic in February down 0.6% year-over-year to 72,245 carloads; paper carloads up 12.6% to 8,193, chemicals and plastic carloads up 24.5% to 5,354

Kendall Sinclair

GREENWICH, Connecticut , March 13, 2012 (press release) – Genesee & Wyoming Inc. (GWI) (NYSE: GWR - News) today reported traffic volumes for February 2012.

GWI’s traffic in February 2012 was 72,245 carloads, a decrease of 442 carloads, or 0.6 percent, compared with February 2011. GWI’s traffic in the first quarter of 2012 through February was 145,132 carloads, a decrease of 10,290 carloads, or 6.6 percent, compared to the first quarter of 2011 through February.

The table below sets forth consolidated carloading information for February 2012 and February 2011. Additional carload information for GWI’s North American and Australian operations is included as an exhibit to this press release.

Genesee & Wyoming Inc.
by Commodity Group	February	February
	2012	2011	% Change
Consolidated:
Farm & Food Products	11,427	10,230	11.7%
Minerals & Stone	9,670	9,311	3.9%
Coal & Coke	9,366	15,525	-39.7%
Metals	8,961	6,653	34.7%
Pulp & Paper	8,193	7,275	12.6%
Chemicals & Plastics	5,354	4,301	24.5%
Lumber & Forest Products	5,120	4,602	11.3%
Intermodal*	4,685	3,611	29.7%
Petroleum Products	2,707	2,352	15.1%
Metallic Ores**	2,332	1,963	18.8%
Autos & Auto Parts	792	881	-10.1%
Other	3,638	5,983	-39.2%
Total carloads	72,245	72,687	-0.6%

* - Represents intermodal units
** - Includes carloads and intermodal units

Excluding 1,306 carloads from the Arizona Eastern Railway (AZER) acquisition, which closed September 1, 2011, and 243 carloads from the Hilton & Albany Railroad, Inc. (HAL), which commenced operations on January 1, 2012, same-railroad traffic in February 2012 decreased 1,991 carloads, or 2.7 percent, compared with February 2011. Coal & coke traffic decreased 6,159 carloads primarily due to lower shipments in GWI’s Illinois, Mountain West, New York/Pennsylvania and Ohio Regions. GWI’s other commodity group traffic decreased 2,349 carloads primarily due to lower overhead coal shipments in GWI’s Ohio Region. These decreases were partially offset by increases of 1,981 carloads of metals traffic due to steel and scrap shipments in GWI’s Southern Region, 1,116 carloads of farm & food products traffic primarily due to increased shipments in GWI’s Illinois Region and 1,074 units of intermodal traffic primarily due to increased shipments in GWI’s Australia Region. All remaining traffic increased by a net 2,346 carloads.

The increase in February 2012 intermodal traffic in Australia compared with February 2011 was primarily due to an 8 day closure of the Adelaide to Darwin rail line in February 2011 resulting from a track washout caused by Cyclone Carlos. In February 2012, the Edith River Bridge in Australia’s Northern Territory was out of service for 28 days in the month due to a washout associated with Cyclone Grant, which resulted in the continued closure of a section of track at the northern end of the Adelaide to Darwin line. Until the bridge was reopened on February 28th, intermodal traffic was shipped to Katherine and transloaded to truck for delivery to Darwin. This intermodal traffic is included in our February 2012 carloads. Although intermodal traffic was not materially affected by the Edith River Bridge closure, metallic ores traffic in Australia was negatively affected in February 2012.

The table below sets forth consolidated carloading information for the first quarter of 2012 through February and the first quarter of 2011 through February. Additional carload information for GWI’s North American and Australian operations is included as an exhibit to this press release.

Genesee & Wyoming Inc.
by Commodity Group	QTD Feb	QTD Feb
	2012	2011	% Change
Consolidated:
Farm & Food Products	21,072	20,025	5.2%
Coal & Coke	20,645	34,388	-40.0%
Minerals & Stone	19,709	19,275	2.3%
Metals	17,907	13,989	28.0%
Pulp & Paper	16,540	15,895	4.1%
Chemicals & Plastics	11,007	9,167	20.1%
Lumber & Forest Products	10,408	9,802	6.2%
Intermodal*	8,213	8,284	-0.9%
Petroleum Products	5,323	5,204	2.3%
Metallic Ores**	4,063	4,207	-3.4%
Autos & Auto Parts	1,493	1,758	-15.1%
Other	8,752	13,428	-34.8%
Total carloads	145,132	155,422	-6.6%

* - Represents intermodal units
** - Includes carloads and intermodal units

Excluding 2,718 carloads from AZER and 507 carloads from HAL, same-railroad traffic in the first quarter of 2012 through February decreased 13,515 carloads, or 8.7 percent, compared with the first quarter of 2011 through February. The traffic decrease was principally due to decreases of 13,743 carloads of coal & coke traffic and 4,733 carloads of other commodity group traffic, partially offset by an increase of 3,226 carloads of metals traffic. All remaining traffic increased by a net 1,735 carloads.

Carload Reporting for Metallic Ores Traffic

Effective January 1, 2012, a portion of GWI’s metallic ores commodity group includes intermodal containers as a result of a change in rail logistics and equipment for a customer in GWI’s Australia Region. The impact of this change increased traffic by 532 carloads in February 2012 and 732 carloads in the first quarter of 2012 through February.

Historically, GWI has found that carload information may be indicative of freight revenues on its railroads, but may not be indicative of total revenues, operating expenses, operating income or net income. Car movements related to railcar switching, including activities at port terminals, are excluded from our carload information as the resulting revenues are classified as non-freight.

GWI owns and operates short line and regional freight railroads and provides railcar switching services in the United States, Australia, Canada, the Netherlands and Belgium. In addition, we operate the Tarcoola to Darwin rail line, which links the Port of Darwin with the Australian interstate rail network in South Australia. Operations currently include 65 railroads organized in 10 regions, with more than 7,600 miles of owned and leased track and approximately 1,400 additional miles under track access arrangements. We provide rail service at 17 ports in North America and Europe and perform contract coal loading and railcar switching for industrial customers.

Exhibit

The table below sets forth North American carloading information for February 2012 and February 2011:

	February		February
		2012		2011	% Change
North America Operations:
Coal & Coke		9,366		15,525	-39.7%
Metals		8,961		6,653	34.7%
Pulp & Paper		8,193		7,275	12.6%
Farm & Food Products		5,815		4,730	22.9%
Chemicals & Plastics		5,354		4,301	24.5%
Minerals & Stone		5,198		4,173	24.6%
Lumber & Forest Products		5,120		4,602	11.3%
Petroleum Products		2,660		2,326	14.4%
Metallic Ores		814		825	-1.3%
Autos & Auto Parts		792		881	-10.1%
Intermodal*		238		290	-17.9%
Other		3,638		5,983	-39.2%
Total carloads		56,149		57,564	-2.5%

* - Represents intermodal units

The table below sets forth North American carloading information for the first quarter of 2012 through February and the first quarter of 2011 through February:

	QTD Feb	QTD Feb
	2012	2011	% Change
North America Operations:
Coal & Coke	20,645	34,388	-40.0%
Metals	17,907	13,989	28.0%
Pulp & Paper	16,540	15,895	4.1%
Chemicals & Plastics	11,007	9,167	20.1%
Farm & Food Products	10,544	9,450	11.6%
Lumber & Forest Products	10,408	9,802	6.2%
Minerals & Stone	10,212	8,304	23.0%
Petroleum Products	5,239	5,153	1.7%
Metallic Ores	1,734	1,755	-1.2%
Autos & Auto Parts	1,493	1,758	-15.1%
Intermodal*	408	476	-14.3%
Other	8,752	13,428	-34.8%
Total carloads	114,889	123,565	-7.0%

* - Represents intermodal units

The table below sets forth Australian carloading information for February 2012 and February 2011:

	February	February
	2012	2011	% Change
Australian Operations:
Farm & Food Products	5,612	5,500	2.0%
Minerals & Stone	4,472	5,138	-13.0%
Intermodal*	4,447	3,321	33.9%
Metallic Ores**	1,518	1,138	33.4%
Petroleum Products	47	26	80.8%
Total carloads	16,096	15,123	6.4%

* - Represents intermodal units
** - Includes carloads and intermodal units

The table below sets forth Australian carloading information for the first quarter of 2012 through February and the first quarter of 2011 through February:

	QTD Feb	QTD Feb
	2012	2011	% Change
Australian Operations:
Farm & Food Products	10,528	10,575	-0.4%
Minerals & Stone	9,497	10,971	-13.4%
Intermodal*	7,805	7,808	0.0%
Metallic Ores**	2,329	2,452	-5.0%
Petroleum Products	84	51	64.7%
Total carloads	30,243	31,857	-5.1%

* - Represents intermodal units
** - Includes carloads and intermodal units