The story
OmniTRAX was incorporated in 1986 as a subsidiary of The Broe Group, a privately held energy development and real estate company founded by Denver businessman Pat Broe in 1972. OmniTRAX purchased the Great Western Railway of Colorado that year in order to augment the value of Broe's industrial real estate developments in northeastern Colorado.
Initial expansion
OmniTRAX leased the 278-mile (447 km) Kansas Southwestern Railway from the Union Pacific Railroad in April 1991.
In June 1992, OmniTRAX purchased all the outstanding stock of the Chicago West Pullman Transportation Co., which owned the 1.78-mile (2.86 km) Manufacturers' Junction Railway at Cicero, Illinois; the 13-mile (21 km) Newburgh and South Shore Railroad at Cleveland, Ohio; the 72-mile (116 km) Chicago Rail Link at Chicago, Illinois; the 25-mile (40 km) Chicago, West Pullman and Southern Railroad in Chicago; the 17.3-mile (27.8 km) Georgia Woodlands Railroad in Warren and Wilkes counties, Georgia; and the Wisconsin and Calumet Railroad in southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois. The Wisconsin & Calumet was sold less than a month later to the Wisconsin and Southern Railroad. OmniTRAX purchased the abandoned Western Electric Hawthorne Works in Cicero, which was adjacent to the Manufacturers' Junction Railway, and began developing it as a multimodal transfer center.
In October 1992, OmniTRAX purchased 800 miles (1,300 km) of track in Kansas and Oklahoma from the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway. The main lines of track stretched from Salina, Kansas, to Osborne, Kansas, and from Marion, Kansas, to Scott City, Kansas. OmniTRAX formed the Central Kansas Railway to run on the lines. The Kansas Southwestern Railway merged into the Central Kansas Railway in May 2000, and then OmniTRAX sold the Central Kansas Railway to Watco in April 2001.
OmniTRAX purchased 31 miles (50 km) of track between Borger and Panhandle, Texas, from the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe in November 1993. It formed the Panhandle Northern Railroad to operate on this track. Eighteen months later, in May 1995, OmniTRAX leased the 25.5-mile (41.0 km) Northern Ohio & Western Railway from the Sandusky County/Seneca County/Tiffin Port Authority.
Move into Canada
OmniTRAX moved into Canada in November 1996 with its purchase of the Hudson Bay Railway, which ran from The Pas, Manitoba, to the Port of Churchill in Churchill, Manitoba. OmniTRAX then purchased the port itself for C$1 in November 1997. As part of the deal, the Canadian government agreed to put C$34 million worth of upgrades, dredging, and repairs into the port, while OmniTRAX pledged to add C$45 million in upgrading the port facilities and Hudson Bay Railway. Three months later, OmniTRAX purchased the Carlton Trail Railway track bought from the Canadian National Railway. The 280 miles (450 km) ran from Warman, Saskatchewan, to White Star, Saskatchewan, and from Speers Junction (near White Star) to end of the line at Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan.
Post-2000 expansion
OmniTRAX expanded its presence in the American Southeast in 2004 by purchasing the 245-mile (394 km) Georgia and Florida Railnet (renamed the Georgia and Florida Railway) from North American RailNet. It also leased the 22-mile (35 km) terminal switching Fulton County Railway (based in Atlanta), and the Alabama and Tennessee River Railway in Alabama. It purchased both lines outright in 2018.
OmniTRAX made its first venture into Washington state when it purchased a 76.5-mile (123.1 km) BNSF Railway route in January 2005. This route, shaped like an inverted capital "U", ran from Kettle Falls, Washington, north to the U.S.-Canadian border at Laurier, Washington, crossed the border to reach Cascade City, British Columbia, traveled west to Almond Gardens, then south to cross the border to follow Washington State Route 21 to Republic, Washington. Another 83 miles (134 km) of line (from Kettle Falls southeast to Chewelah, Washington, and from Kettle Falls northwest to Columbia Gardens, British Columbia) was leased from BNSF. The Kettle Falls International Railway was created to run on these lines.
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OmniTRAX completed its purchase of all of North American Railnet's assets in April 2005 when it purchased the 509-mile (819 km) Nebraska Kansas Colorado Railway and the 113-mile (182 km) Illinois Railway.
2010s to present
OmniTRAX moved into California for the first time in 2011 when it purchased the 25-mile (40 km) Stockton Terminal & Eastern Railroad, a short line linking several industrial customers to the Port of Stockton, the Union Pacific, and the BNSF.
The company expanded its operations in Oklahoma in June 2014 when it purchased the 32-mile (51 km) Sand Springs Railway between Tulsa, Oklahoma and Sand Springs, Oklahoma. In September 2016, it acquired the 146-acre (59 ha) former Gerdau steel mill site in Sand Springs. The company said it would work with other Broe Co. subsidiaries to build residential, retail, industrial, logistics, and transportation buildings and facilities there.
June 2014 also saw OmniTRAX purchase the Brownsville and Rio Grande International Railroad in Texas, bringing its number of rail subsidiaries to 19. This made OmniTRAX the third-largest shortline railroad company in the United States, behind Genesee & Wyoming and Watco. As part of the Brownsville & Rio Grande purchase, OmniTRAX also received a 30-year lease on 1,200 acres (490 ha) within the Brownsville Navigation District (the governmental entity which runs the Port of Brownsville and other transportation and shipping infrastructure in the Brownsville, Texas, area). Under the terms of the deal, the company agreed to invest at least $8.5 million in rail and port upgrades, and help market 1,200 acres (490 ha) of undeveloped port land. OmniTRAX said it would build an industrial park on the land. By the end of 2014, the firm also controlled the Peru Industrial Railroad, a 3-mile (4.8 km) switching railroad in Peru, Illinois.
By March 2016, OmniTRAX owned 20 shortline railroads operating in 12 U.S. states and three Canadian provinces. In the early months of the year, it spent $14 million restoring 7 miles (11 km) of track between Greeley and Windsor, Colorado. This halved the rail traffic passing through the town of Fort Collins by providing a shorter route for traffic intended for routing along the Union Pacific. In July of that year, the company partnered with the Topflight Grain Cooperative to operate the new Decatur Central Railroad. OmniTRAX purchased 16 miles (26 km) of Decatur Junction Railway track that connected Topflight's facility at the Midwest Inland Port near Cisco, Illinois, with a variety of grain and cereal processing plants in and around Macon County, Illinois. The top companies shared the costs of equipment and operations of the railroad.
OmniTRAX proposed buying Iowa Pacific Holdings' Sanford Lake Branch track (also known as the Saratoga-North Creek Railway), which ran 29 miles (47 km) from North Creek, New York, to Tahawus, New York, in August 2019. The firm also proposed buying track owned by Warren County which ran from North Creek to Corinth, New York. This would allow OmniTRAX to make additional connections with Class I railroads. Local residents, concerned that OmniTRAX would permit its track to be used for the storage of oil tank cars, opposed the sale. Warren County officials did not want to sell their track for fear of losing control over the uses to which it could be put. After a year of public debate, OmniTRAX declined to pursue both deals.
In July 2019, OmniTRAX purchased the 100-mile (160 km) Winchester & Western Railroad's Virginia Division from Covia Holdings for $105 million. The division included 53 miles (85 km) of track in western Virginia and 47 miles (76 km) of track in New Jersey. The purchase was subject to review and approval by the Surface Transportation Board, a federal agency. It was completed in September 2019.
OmniTRAX picked up its 25th rail operation in August 2022, when it was selected to run the Port of Catoosa Industrial Railroad (PCIR) by Tulsa Ports.
From Wikipedia’s article on OmniTRAX, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5