WEST HAZLETON - Reading, Blue Mountain & Northern Railroad Co. had its best year ever in 2013 and does not plan to stop growing, its president said Thursday.
"When other people are selling, we buy," Wayne Michel told about 25 business people at the Northeast Pennsylvania Manufacturers and Employers Association transportation roundtable session at the Top of the 80s.
The Port Clinton-based railroad had a 9 percent growth in traffic, shipping more than 23,000 cargo loads, in spite of a slowdown in the anthracite business, Michel said.
Furthermore, he said the railroad will continue to adhere to the philosophy of its owner, Andrew Muller Jr., who used some of that money in 2013 to install 35,000 new railroad ties and buy four locomotives.
"We have an owner who believes in reinvesting," Michel said.
Muller, Hamburg, started the railroad in 1983 with just 13 miles of track. Today, the Reading, Blue Mountain & Northern is the largest privately-owned railroad in Pennsylvania, with 320 miles of track in nine counties and 150 employees.
The railroad plans even more growth in the Hazleton area, preparing to take over service to the Humboldt Industrial Park in Luzerne and Schuylkill counties no later than January 2017, Michel said.
"I'm looking forward" to the Reading, Blue Mountain & Northern providing that service, said W. Kevin O'Donnell, president of CAN DO Inc., which operates the park.
Daniel R. Gilchrist, executive vice president of marketing and sales, told those at the session that the railroad has diversified from its traditional base of anthracite. In fact, he said, paper is now the primary product the railroad ships, with 29 percent of its cargo being paper as opposed to 22 percent anthracite.
Food and wine comprise the third-largest segment, 12 percent, of the railroad's cargo, Gilchrist said. That has proven to be beneficial, according to Gilchrist.
"Wine consumption is perfectly impervious to any kind of economic calamity," he said.
Gilchrist said the railroad places great emphasis on satisfying its customers, with adhering to its schedule as a vital part of that.
"In 2013, we met our schedule 98 percent of the time," he said. "It's not perfect, but we do pretty well."
Furthermore, he said, the railroad offers its customers plenty of additional capacity on its trains and storage space on its tracks.
"We require ourselves to focus on the customer," Gilchrist said. "We like to move very fast."
Gilchrist said the railroad has undertaken a number of successful projects in recent years, including a sand terminal in 2009 in Pittston, a coal export terminal in 2010 in Fairless Hills, a new track system in 2011 at the Packaging Corporation of America plant in Reading, aluminum transload terminals in 2012 in Cressona and Penobscot, and expansion of the unloading pit in 2013 in Leetsdale.
Michel said the Fairless Hills and Leetsdale projects were particularly noteworthy since they are not on the railroad's line.
"It's very unusual" for a railroad to invest in projects not on its own lines, he said.
The coal export terminal was particularly important, since Baltimore, the traditional shipping port for anthracite, was closed to that product in 2010, according to Gilchrist. The railroad partnered with the energy company Kinder Morgan on the project, he said.
"They had excellent port facilities," Gilchrist said of Kinder Morgan. The railroad invested more than $200,000 in building two rail car unloading conveyors at the Bucks County site, and the spending has proven to be wise, he said.
Michel said the company wants to provide the same service to businesses in Humboldt. Norfolk Southern currently provides that service and will continue to do so until the Reading, Blue Mountain & Northern takes over.
"They're not as flexible as a short line and they're not locally owned," Michel said.
He said U.S. Rep Lou Barletta, R-11, has unsuccessfully tried to persuade Norfolk Southern to turn over the service to the Reading, Blue Mountain & Northern.
"The customers are going to get far better service" with the Reading, Blue Mountain & Northern, Michel said. "We have tried to persuade Norfolk Southern to allow us to take over early. So far, we have had no success."
Association President Darlene J. Robbins said the Reading, Blue Mountain & Northern's service is important to many Schuylkill County businesses, especially in the coal, paper and plastics industries. Railroad service can cut a company's transportation costs significantly, she said.
Michel said the railroad recently bought a property in West Brunswick Township that it would like to have developed for industry but otherwise is concentrating its efforts in Schuylkill County on serving existing customers. However, he said the railroad always is looking to hire personnel and is continuing to grow.
"Our employees come and they stay," he said. "Our employees love to come to work."
Gilchrist said the company will continue to provide top-notch service to its customers across the region.
"We aren't afraid to put our money where our mouth is," he said.Company: Reading Blue Mountain & Northern Co.
Headquarters: Port Clinton
Founded: 1983
Employees: 150
Miles of track: 320