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In 2000, Eyal Shapira was urged by a Norfolk Southern Corp. friend to check out the 16-mile Raritan Central Railway L.L.C (RCRY) in Edison/Woodbridge, N.J. The short line was only hauling 600 to 700 carloads a year. But Shapira, a longtime real estate and industrial development professional just two years into a rail career, recognized RCRY’s strategic potential:

• The railway serves Raritan Center, the East Coast’s largest
industrial park.

• The line accesses, via Conrail Shared Assets, both CSX Transportation and NS.

• The park is adjacent to several major highways, including the New Jersey Turnpike, Garden State Parkway and Interstate 287.

• It’s surrounded by the world’s largest consumer market.

So, Shapira negotiated a 20-year lease with Raritan Center’s owners to operate the railroad; the lease took effect in August 2001. Monthly carloads increased from 65 in September 2001 to 420 this past July. Annual carloads now have jumped to 4,000. Shapira has expanded his customer base from three to 12, with a portfolio that includes U.S. Gypsum, Riviana Foods, Cargill, Ameristeel and CSSC Distribution.

Why has RCRY been so successful? Shapira, who was born in Israel and came to the United States in 1977, puts it this way: “Maybe it takes an immigrant Middle Easterner to realize there are golden opportunities here.”

Marketing maven. And Shapira intends to seize them. He’s pursued growth with a passion since entering the rail realm in 1998 by leasing the 32-mile New York & Ogdensburg Railway from the Ogdensburg Bridge & Port Authority. Working with CSXT/TransFlo service officials, Shapira grew monthly carloads from 60 to 600 on the short line, which since 2002 has been operated by Vermont Railway System.

No shrinking violet, Shapira displays a temerity that occasionally raises the ire of industry colleagues, observers say. One reason: Shapira, who claims no special affinity for railroading, believes many short-line owners are mired in negativity.

“He’s aggressive to the point where he can offend some people, but he gets results,” says Tom Egan, director of short line and regional rail development for CSXT, which handles more than 90 percent of RCRY’s line haul.

Shapira also believes short-line railroaders don’t spend enough time marketing the business; for Shapira, marketing’s the top priority. He regularly sends mailings to 2,500 potential customers, and says he personally pursues every active lead.

“Shapira is the poster child for the concept of the ‘freight village,’ in that he does transload and rail direct at a highway-friendly industrial park,” Egan says.

His efforts have paid off — and not just for RCRY. The railroad’s attracted new business to the industrial park, and satisfied rail customers are far less likely to relocate, says Peter Visceglia, president of Federal Business Centers, which owns the majority of Raritan Center’s real estate. It didn’t hurt that Shapira invested $1.5 million in RCRY’s physical plant during 2003, including doubling yard capacity from two tracks to five.

RCRY is about 15 miles from the Port of New York/New Jersey, but so far, the railway’s product has been strictly domestic. Shapira’s aiming to change that. On a late-August afternoon, he’s making a sales pitch to Steve Filer, director of distribution for CSSC, a third-party logistics company that transloads everything from Texas-grown rice to steel rebar: Shapira had been talking with an importer of plastic pellets that arrive at Port Newark/Elizabeth in 1,000-pound bags. The pellets need to be top-fed into covered hopper cars. Can CSSC handle the job? Filer says he’ll find a way.

Talking transloading. Shapira’s plan is to convince other shippers in the Northeast that rail can work for them, too. On Sept. 5, Shapira signed a 35-year lease to provide switching services at the former VA Supply Depot in Somerset, N.J. The 165-acre, NS-accessed facility offers 6,000 linear feet of cross-dock loading space. Shapira dubbed his new operation “New Jersey & Northern Railway L.L.C.”

On Sept. 10, he announced a lease/purchase of CSXT’s Hospital Industrial Track, which diverges from Metro-North’s, and CSXT-served, Hudson Line at Poughkeepsie, N.Y. The five-mile spur, which makes a climb out of the Hudson Valley so steep it even includes a switchback, hasn’t carried traffic since 2000. But Shapira likes the segment’s east-of-Hudson location and proximity to I-84, a major truck route into New England. He’s renamed it “New York & Eastern Railway L.L.C.”

Can he make lemonade out of this particular lemon? It might take five years to pull off, but Shapira envisions a transload facility. He plans to promote local industrial development in an area where it’s been in considerable decline. Don’t bet against him.

— Joe Greenstein is a Brooklyn, N.Y.-based free-lance writer and photographer.