Comment / Private equity's quiet takeover of US short-line railroads

ID 2386135 © Chaoss | Dreamstime.com

There are roughly 600 short-line railroads in the United States. These small businesses operate nearly 50,000 miles of track, about 30% of the national freight rail network, and handle one out of every five rail cars moving on the system. Many were family-owned for decades. Many still are. But the ownership map is being redrawn, fast, and the capital doing the redrawing doesn’t come from railroad families.

It comes from London, New York, and the Cayman Islands.

The deal ...