100 Business View Magazine - June 2016
In 1985, Monte Verde and his business partners Mike
Thomas, John Herbrand, and Chuck Riedmiller formed
theGenesee Valley TransportationCompany, Inc. (GVT),
to purchase some of Conrail’s castoffs. “This group of
friends got together and we formed a company and
bought our first locomotive from Conrail,” Monte Verde
says. “We leased it out to the Rochester & Southern
Railroad; then we bought some more locomotives and
we were buying and selling boxcars, coaches, and ca-
booses. At one point, we had four locomotives all out
on lease.”
“In 1989, an oppor-
tunity came along,
and we moved on
from dealing in trains
to running a rail-
road,” Monte Verde
continues.
“There
was a little three mile
railroad that Conrail
was the designated
operator for on part
of the old Delaware,
Lackawanna main-
line into Buffalo, and
