Genesee & Wyoming reports its August traffic rose 11.7% year over year to 87,383 carloads, fiscal Q3 traffic jumped 16% to 172,582 carloads

Liling Tan

GREENWICH, Connecticut , September 13, 2011 (press release) – Genesee & Wyoming Inc. (GWI) (NYSE:GWR - News) today reported traffic volumes for August 2011.

GWI’s traffic in August 2011 was 87,383 carloads, an increase of 11,840 carloads, or 15.7 percent, compared with August 2010. GWI’s traffic in the third quarter of 2011 through August was 172,582 carloads, an increase of 23,792 carloads, or 16.0 percent, compared to the third quarter of 2010 through August.

The table below sets forth consolidated carloading information for August 2011 and August 2010. 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	August	August
	2011	2010	% Change
Consolidated:
Coal & Coke	18,110	16,845	7.5	%
Minerals & Stone	13,070	12,342	5.9	%
Farm & Food Products	10,860	9,716	11.8	%
Pulp & Paper	8,550	8,233	3.9	%
Metals	7,891	7,139	10.5	%
Lumber & Forest Products	5,888	5,706	3.2	%
Intermodal*	5,325	437	NM
Chemicals & Plastics	5,309	4,940	7.5	%
Metallic Ores	2,807	815	NM
Petroleum Products	2,566	2,411	6.4	%
Autos & Auto Parts	945	709	33.3	%
Other	6,062	6,250	-3.0	%
Total carloads	87,383	75,543	15.7	%

* - Represents intermodal units

Excluding 7,205 carloads from the FreightLink Acquisition(1), which closed December 1, 2010, same-railroad traffic in August 2011 increased 4,635 carloads, or 6.1 percent, compared with August 2010. The increase was principally due to a 1,265 carload increase in coal & coke traffic primarily in GWI’s New York/Ohio/Pennsylvania and Mountain West Regions (f/k/a Rocky Mountain Region), and a 1,144 carload increase in farm & food products, primarily in GWI’s Australia and Illinois Regions. All remaining traffic increased by a net 2,226 carloads.

The table below sets forth consolidated carloading information for the third quarter of 2011 through August and the third quarter of 2010 through August. 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 Aug	QTD Aug
	2011	2010	% Change
Consolidated:
Coal & Coke	34,732	33,057	5.1	%
Minerals & Stone	25,783	23,616	9.2	%
Farm & Food Products	21,743	18,850	15.3	%
Pulp & Paper	16,869	16,370	3.0	%
Metals	15,028	14,071	6.8	%
Lumber & Forest Products	11,133	11,566	-3.7	%
Intermodal*	10,452	916	NM
Chemicals & Plastics	10,211	9,883	3.3	%
Metallic Ores	5,795	1,669	NM
Petroleum Products	5,082	4,964	2.4	%
Autos & Auto Parts	1,690	1,328	27.3	%
Other	14,064	12,500	12.5	%
Total carloads	172,582	148,790

Excluding 14,488 carloads from the FreightLink Acquisition(1), same-railroad traffic in the third quarter of 2011 through August increased 9,304 carloads, or 6.3 percent, compared with the third quarter of 2010 through August. The traffic increase was principally due to increases of 2,893 carloads of farm & food products, 2,167 carloads of minerals & stone traffic and 1,675 carloads of coal & coke traffic. All remaining traffic increased by a net 2,569 carloads.

Carload Reporting for Huron Central Railway

The carloads in this press release include traffic from the Huron Central Railway (HCRY) as follows: 1,441 carloads in August 2011, 1,494 carloads in August 2010, 2,904 carloads in the third quarter of 2011 through August and 2,816 carloads in the third quarter of 2010 through August. On June 15, 2009, GWI announced its intent to discontinue operations of HCRY. After negotiations with certain customers and government entities, HCRY entered into an interim agreement to continue operations. Because of the nature of the temporary agreement, during this interim period, which lasted from August 15, 2009 through December 31, 2010, GWI did not include HCRY’s carloads in its monthly carloading press release. On January 1, 2011, HCRY started operating under a new agreement with certain customers and GWI resumed including HCRY traffic in its monthly carloading press release. To facilitate comparison to the prior year in this press release, GWI has included HCRY carloads from August 2010 and the third quarter of 2010 through August which were not previously included in the press release for the same period in 2010.

Carload Reporting After FreightLink Acquisition

Since acquiring FreightLink, GWI is reporting two new commodity groups, Intermodal and Metallic Ores. Intermodal units included in freight revenues are reported consistent with the Association of American Railroads (AAR) convention. Previously, Intermodal traffic was reported on a carload basis and included in the Other commodity group. The change in reporting intermodal traffic on a unit basis rather than on a carload basis increases previously reported August 2010 volume by an additional 338 carloads and the third quarter of 2010 through August by an additional 705 carloads. Metallic Ores traffic had previously been included in three commodity groups: Coal, Coke & Ores, Minerals & Stone and Metals commodity groups.

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 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 64 railroads organized in 10 regions, with more than 7,500 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.

(1) On December 1, 2010 GWI purchased certain assets from FreightLink Pty Ltd (receivers and managers appointed) (FL), Asia Pacific Transport Pty Ltd (receivers and managers appointed) (APT) and the other APT joint venture sellers (together with FL and APT, “FreightLink Acquisition” or "FreightLink")

Exhibit

The table below sets forth North American carloading information for August 2011 and August 2010:

August		August
	2011		2010	% Change
North America Operations:
Coal & Coke	18,110		16,845	7.5	%
Pulp & Paper	8,550		8,233	3.9	%
Metals	7,891		7,139	10.5	%
Minerals & Stone	7,802		6,934	12.5	%
Lumber & Forest Products	5,888		5,706	3.2	%
Chemicals & Plastics	5,309		4,940	7.5	%
Farm & Food Products	4,920		4,435	10.9	%
Petroleum Products	2,518		2,411	4.4	%
Autos & Auto Parts	945		709	33.3	%
Metallic Ores	804		815	-1.3	%
Intermodal*	171		437	-60.9	%
Other	6,062		6,250	-3.0	%
Total carloads	68,970		64,854	6.3	%

* - Represents intermodal units

The table below sets forth North American carloading information for the third quarter of 2011 through August and the third quarter of 2010 through August:

QTD Aug QTD Aug
2011 2010 % Change
North America Operations:
Coal & Coke 34,732 33,057 5.1 %
Pulp & Paper 16,869 16,370 3.0 %
Minerals & Stone 15,127 12,614 19.9 %
Metals 15,028 14,071 6.8 %
Lumber & Forest Products 11,133 11,566 -3.7 %
Chemicals & Plastics 10,211 9,883 3.3 %
Farm & Food Products 9,666 8,455 14.3 %
Petroleum Products 4,984 4,964 0.4 %
Autos & Auto Parts 1,690 1,328 27.3 %
Metallic Ores 1,545 1,669 -7.4 %
Intermodal* 312 916 -65.9 %
Other 14,064 12,500 12.5 %
Total carloads 135,361 127,393 6.3 %

* - Represents intermodal units

The table below sets forth Australian carloading information for August 2011 and August 2010:

August August
2011 2010 % Change
Australian Operations:
Farm & Food Products 5,940 5,281 12.5 %
Minerals & Stone 5,268 5,408 -2.6 %
Intermodal* 5,154 - NM
Metallic Ores 2,003 - NM
Petroleum Products 48 - NM
Total carloads 18,413 10,689 72.3 %

* - Represents intermodal units

The table below sets forth Australian carloading information for the third quarter of 2011 through August and the third quarter of 2010 through August:

QTD Aug QTD Aug
2011 2010 % Change
Australian Operations:
Farm & Food Products 12,077 10,395 16.2 %
Minerals & Stone 10,656 11,002 -3.1 %
Intermodal* 10,140 - NM
Metallic Ores 4,250 - NM
Petroleum Products 98 - NM
Total carloads 37,221 21,397 74.0 %

* - Represents intermodal units