By Jeff Stagl, Managing Editor
When Genesee & Wyoming Inc. (G&W) acquired RailAmerica Inc. in 2013, it gained control of 45 more short lines. G&W also assumed ownership of a dispatch center in St. Albans, Vermont.
Over the years, RailAmerica had consolidated dispatching in St. Albans, creating the American Rail Dispatching Center Inc. (ARDC) there to serve all its railroads.
At the time of the RailAmerica acquisition, G&W managed regional dispatching locations. With the ARDC facility in hand, G&W leaders decided to follow RailAmerica’s lead and consolidate dispatching at the center.
Nine years later, G&W is ready to take the next step with its dispatching needs: create a bigger and better center. The company plans to move to a new facility in St. Albans that’s near the existing center, which is adjacent to the city’s Amtrak station.
The new 20,000-square foot dispatching center will be slightly larger, more modern and more energy efficient than the current facility, says Charles Hunter, the assistant vice president of government affairs for G&W Railroad Services Inc.
Built in 1865, the current center no longer meets G&W’s dispatching needs. Genesee & Wyoming Inc. “We’re now in an 1865 structure that is historic and quaint — but it’s a structure built in 1865,” he says. “There are the usual issues with a building that old.”
Connor Contracting Inc. will build the facility for the dispatching center and lease the space to G&W. The city of St. Albans owns the land and the center will occupy about one-third of the property, so the city and Connor Contracting plan to seek tenants for the remainder of the site.
Construction on the dispatching center is expected to start in spring and be completed by year’s end.
The facility will house about 60 dispatchers and group callers, says Hunter. Those workers manage the movement of trains and on-track equipment throughout the United States and Canada.
G&W leaders had considered relocating the dispatching center to another city, but they reached a lucrative deal with St. Albans officials — including financial incentives — to retain the facility and jobs in the municipality.
“Now we’ll be just up the street and about three blocks away,” says Hunter.
