Private company

Austin Western Railroad

Logo: https://www.watco.com/service/rail/austin-western-railroad-awrr/, Non-free logo, via Wikipedia3

Short-line railroad near Austin, TX

The Austin Western Railroad (reporting mark AWRR) is a Class III short-line railroad headquartered in Round Rock, Texas. AWRR is a subsidiary of Watco. It is the contracted operator of 126 miles (203 km) of ex-Southern Pacific trackage, now owned by Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority.2 It is part of Watco Companies.1 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 20, 2026.

Overview

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The Austin Western Railroad (reporting mark AWRR) is a Class III short-line railroad headquartered in Round Rock, Texas. AWRR is a subsidiary of Watco. It is the contracted operator of 126 miles (203 km) of ex-Southern Pacific trackage, now owned by Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority. AWRR operates the line from Fairland, Texas to Giddings, Texas, in addition to 6.4 miles (10.3 km) of branchline from Fairland to Marble Falls, Texas. Another 28 miles (45 km) of track remain out of service between Fairland and Llano, having most recently seen revenue service in 2005. This portion comprises the Austin and Northwestern Railroad Historic District.2

Corporate structure

Austin Western Railroad is part of a group headed by Watco Companies. 20 entities, 2 countries on record. Switch between the flow chart and the network, and select any entity to see its details.

Built from subsidiaries, stakes and holdings from Wikidata (CC0); major holders from Schedules 13D and 13G. Each entity in the chart links to its source.

The story

The Austin Western Railroad was founded in 2007, with Watco winning the bid to operate the line after the Austin Area Terminal Railroad's contract with Capital Metro ended.

In 2015, BNSF named AWRR its "shortline of the year."

In 2024, Austin Western began to install distributed power (DPU) systems in some of its locomotives. While DPU systems are common on Class I railroads, AWRR is one of the only Class III shortline railroads to use the system.

From Wikipedia’s article on Austin Western Railroad, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4

Subsidiaries and ownership

Parent company

From Wikidata.1

Timeline

  1. 2007Acquired Acquired by Watco Companies1

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

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