Business View Magazine - May 2016 53
In the end, Sabin believes that the IANR’s true suc-
cess has come from treating its customers as busi-
ness partners. “In many cases, in the railroad indus-
try, the larger companies tend to impose their levels of
service rates on the customer and we try to design our
company to be an extension of that customer’s own
operation or logistics,” he explains. “When we took
over the line, we cut the rates 20 percent on the first
day, just to give our customers breathing space so that
they could focus their attention on expansion of their
loading facilities, their storage, and their infrastructure
that allows them to grow. As long as we were treating
them well, we could grow our business. So we went
from somewhere around 1,200 cars of grain a year
to about 16,000 in a period of 15 years. We’re a rail-
road that doesn’t act like a railroad. And that’s a very
big deal. It certainly attracts and retains companies
to our line that probably wouldn’t have ever gone on a
railroad.”
Today, because of the leadership of Dan Sabin and the
106 employees of the Iowa Northern Railway, at least
one part of the old Rock Island Line is, once again,
“a mighty good road to ride.” So, as the old song sug-
gests, if you are looking to locate your business in the
northeastern part of Iowa - anywhere from Manly to
Cedar Rapids - and you need efficient rail transporta-
tion and high levels of service, you should surely “get
your ticket at the station for the Rock Island Line.” All
aboard!
PREFERRED VENDORS
Mid-America Car Inc.
- Mid America Car, Inc. (MAC) of
Greater Kansas City has over 35 years’ experience in
the locomotive and freight car inspection, repair, and
modification industry. It was founded in 1978 by Curtis
and Janice Blanc as an on-site unit coal-train mainte-
nance contractor for Kansas City Power and Light. It
began with one pickup truck and four employees. To-
day MAC has over 60 highly-skilled professionals with
years of experience in the locomotive and freight car
service industry. -
Wi-Tronix
-
