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Trains News Wire FLASH: MM&A sold to Railroad Acquisition Holdings
They own and run the FEC, the auction winner.
They choose to bring old-head proven FEC operating people in to make over the MM&A…imagine…a nightmare…
Officers made on one of the flattest mainlines supervising near mountain grade operations…
Out of the frying pan, into the fire…my apologies to to the Megantic 47, RIP. but is the frying pan on the range, waiting for the flame to be lit?
It is sad that people are still bashing Mr Burkhart. At least he was willing to try as best he could to run a railroad.
Let’s hope that the new owners have a lot more luck on their side than the MM&A had in the last few months.
Fortress also took over the FEC that was and still is in better condition than the MM&A by a long shot. I think though the FEC is an example of where they want to take the MM&A in the future.
@IAN NARITA - I think some of the comments in this thread go too far, but you can’t really blame people for being angry given stories like this: http://o.canada.com/news/lac-megantic-disaster-ed-burkhardt-says-hes-a-victim-too/
Not a posterchild for good disaster management.
Wonderful news. Fortress are showing themselves to be visionary railroad leaders in Florida, and hopefully they can apply that vision to a railroad that really needs vision.
@TERRY - Curious to know where your concern comes from - were the other projects, other than the FEC and RailAmerica, that Fortress was involved in where they did some kind of asset stripping?
RailAmerica seemed to leave FIG in good health, and I’m absolutely blown away with what they’re doing with the FEC - encouraging the state to use it to develop a TOD corridor, and in the mean time creating a standalone express passenger service.
Reportedly they were behind a push to have a corridor opened up for a private HSR line in the New York area late last year.
If I understand the mentality it’s that they want to use railroads and railroading to add value to communities, and the property they can develop along it.
How the former MM&A fits in there I’m not sure, but it does seem like, as a line that joins some major cities (and plenty of not so major ones) it’s ripe for development. Passenger service seems a stretch, but who knows…
Trians, regarding Ed’s comments, he has nothing to say that people want or need to hear. Please he has lost all credibility. Ask the Mayor of Lac Mégantic for her comments on the sale, ask the Premier of Québec, ask the Governor of Maine, ask the Premier of New Brunswick or ask J. D. Irving. Ask a stakeholder, somebody that cares! Sorry Ed should be in jail.
Mr. Harrison I hope and pray that you are correct. However I would have been happier if the Irving’s had stepped up, but the Irving’s are sharp business men.
I am afraid that Fortress will cut and run, pull up the rails and sell it for scrap. God knows Ed run the MM&A in to the ground. When I think of Fortress I think of Ed, Iron Roads and the like , Please prove me wrong!
Ed Burckhardt screwed up big time by being too cheap by one manning the cab. He needs to pay the price for his chincy business practices.
Either the engineer failed to set sufficient brakes or someone released them after he set them. Somehow, this constitutes a murder by Ed Burkhardt?
Since the engineer told the cab driver the train was secured, it seems he at least believed he had sufficient brakes set.
I know of other railroads that parked trains on a grade, with no derail, and a rule book requiring “sufficient” hand brakes, but not defining what is “sufficient”. This is a recipe for disaster, as we know now, but MM&A was hardly the only one in the industry doing it.
While serious mistakes were made, I don’t think either Ed Burkhardt or the engineer are murderers.
You are certainly entitled to express your opinion, Paul Harrison from Florida, and I am free to express mine. I spent my entire career in the railroad business, starting with the C&NW and ending with the UP, and I am well aware of the criminal Burkhardt, have witnessed his shady dealings with everyone at the WC. and lately, the running of his pretend ‘railroad’ empire around the globe. All for his profit - safety and employees LAST.
Burkhardt waltzes away with a cash reward for murdering 47 Canadians because of his shylock business model railroad. Sets himself up by declaring bankruptcy, thereby negating any claims against him by survivors or the town of Lac Megantic. As I said in my previous, deleted comment, Burkhardt belongs in JAIL, and I think it’s time the RCMP raid his office in suburban Chicago and take him into custody.
@FRANCIS X CARLIN - I’m pretty sure the FEC is made up of people who have worked on more than one railroad in their lives!
In practice though, there’s no more reason why they’d poach FEC people than non-Fortress lines. And the FEC is not the only railroad that’s been under Fortress’s control, it’s just the one they opted to focus on.
I’m not getting the anti-FIG sentiment around here. I know some of you wanted Irving oil to own it, but honestly, do you think an oil transportation company was ever going to buy a line that using for oil would cause so much anger and opposition?
And what, exactly, is wrong with FIG? What have they done in the past that’s so bad? Nobody seems to want to give an answer, and thus far the only things I know about them are overwhelmingly unbelievably positive. RailAmerica. The FEC redevelopment. And their push to produce a private HSR in the North East.
Why the hostility?
@P MCNAMARA - That’s just the problem Mr McNamara, your expression of somewhat extreme positions that opens up Trains.com to accusations of libel is likely to ensure Trains.com closes the forum and deletes our comments. So you’re probably entitled to do so, and your attempts to do so anyway harms the rest of us.
I’m not forcing you to do anything, I couldn’t if I wanted to, and if I owned an overseas, immune from US law, website I certainly wouldn’t censor you. As I said, I have strong opinions about Burhkardt too. But I’m asking you not to here, and explaining my concerns about you doing so.
@P MCNAMARA - Leaving aside the fact that your comments will probably lead to this comment thread being deleted again soon:
You are misinformed. Ed isn’t going to make a penny from this auction. The entire proceeds will be used to help pay the debts of the MM&A, and most of that will go to the survivors and to those trying to rebuild.
I understand the anger about Burkhardt, I’ve said my piece several times, but this sale isn’t going to enrich him, and quite honestly, companies go bankrupt not to avoid their debts, but because they literally can’t pay them. You can’t go bankrupt otherwise. In the mean time, those responsible for the safe operation of the railroad - and that inevitably includes Ed - will be targets for lawsuits to supplement that that comes in from the sale of MM&A.
Again though, cool the rhetoric. Trains Magazine is deleting entire comments threads at the moment because of comments like your own. That’s not helpful.
@ROBERT TRACY - An HSR line built and operated by a private company. Most US HSR projects are public - that is, government funded and operated - but the FEC will be building a private HSR line segment between Cocoa Beach and Orlando as part of its All Aboard Florida initiative, and FIG were talking with various politicians last year about building their own (eg private) HSR line in the New York area.
educate me…what is a private HSR line ?
I’m afraid this is the end of the MMA. There is only one customer between Lac Megantic and Brownville Jct. They don’t ship sufficient cars to keep the entire route in business. Without the oil revenue there won’t be sufficient business to operate it as a through line either. Northern Maine has lost most of its woods product industries so there is basically little to no business left. I suspect the line from Lac Megantic (or maybe Jackman) to Brownville will be torn up with the east and west ends isolated from each other. The east end covering Millinocket to Searsport will be sold to Irving and the west end will be run as a short line by either FIG or another operator.