Business View Magazine
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from, a competitor’s rail markets. The result of these
measures contributed to a substantial reduction of rail-
road industry costs and pricing, and a reversal of the his-
toric loss of traffic to the trucking industry.
With the repeal of so many regulations, the country’s
railroads began to rebound. The Association of American
Railroads, the industry’s principal trade association, es-
timates that the Staggers Act, alone, stimulated almost
half a trillion dollars of new investments in America’s rail
systems, as well as a reorganization of many railroads’
business priorities.
“As a result of the ActStephen continues, “a lot of Class
One’s were abandoning non-productive assets, which
put a lot of communities at a severe disadvantage; with
the abandonment of these short lines you were essen-
tially shutting off supplies to the industries in these com-
munities.”
In order to get a handle on the new landscape, Bill
launched a consulting group to work with two business
partners and worked with various municipalities in an at-
tempt to assess what exactly it would take to get aban-
doned branch lines operating again.
“He was originally hired on to assess property conditions
and then put together a report detailing the steps and
resources that would be required in order to maintain op-
erating traffic,” Stephen explains.
However, once the reports came back to the municipali-
ties, and the need for operators for these tracks became
apparent, Williamwas then solicited directly by thesemu-
nicipalities to see if he and his partners would be willing
to become an operator. His acceptance was the catalyst
for NERR’s business model.
Over the next ten years the company grew, bringing an-
