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On July 17, the United Transportation Union will count ballots submitted by about 35 Rochester & Southern Railroad Inc. workers, who are voting on a tentative five-year agreement. Ballots were mailed June 26.

If ratified, the contract will be the first in three years covering the short line's conductors, engineers, maintenance-of-way and clerical employees, signalmen and mechanical workers, said UTU General Chairperson Dave Murphy in a prepared statement. A previous two-year contract expired on Dec. 31, 2002.

Expiring Dec. 31, 2007, the new contract — which includes annual wage increases, and health and welfare benefit improvements — would be retroactive to Jan. 1, 2003.

Owned and operated by Genesee & Wyoming Inc., and part of the short-line holding company's New York/Pennsylvania Region, the 106-mile Rochester & Southern Railroad interchanges with CSX Transportation, Norfolk Southern Railway, Canadian National Railway Co. and Canadian Pacific Railway.