FREIGHTLINER TAKES £40 MILLION HIT

RESTRUCTURING AS CONTAINER TRAFFIC DECLINES

FREIGHTLINER OWNER

Genesee & Wyoming has announced it will incur a US$55 million (£40 million) restructuring charge this year for its UK operations, with the sum to be used for ‘accelerating improvements to [its] rail, terminal and road business through an optimisation plan to further rationalise rail equipment, to streamline management and to implement technology investments to enhance productivity’.

The news comes as G&W’s UK/European operations reported a 38.6% increase in revenues during the first quarter of 2018. The operating loss decreased to $2.2 million from $8.9 million, while the number of carloads fell by 2.6%, primarily due to a fall in intermodal traffic in the UK and continental Europe and a fall in coal traffic, mostly in the UK.

Preliminary figures from Network Rail for the year to April 2018, covering all operators, suggest a 2% decline in UK rail-borne container traffic (but construction traffic was up by about 2%).

Announcing the results, G&W said it hoped the restructuring will unlock annual savings of around $18 million, which will begin to be realised in the second half of the year.

Meanwhile, Freightliner has unveiled new branding.

The Freightliner brand has been aligned with that of G&W, with the new logo consistent with that of the Pentalver Transport terminal operation in the UK acquired last year and that of the company’s North American freight railroads.