RailAmerica, Inc., based in

Jacksonville, Florida Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the List of United States cities by area, largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the co ...

, was a

holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own shares of other companies ...

of a number of

short-line railroad :''Short Line is also one of the four railroads in the American version of the popular board game Monopoly, named after the Shore Fast Line, an interurban streetcar line.'' A shortline railroad is a small or mid-sized railroad company that oper ...

s and regional railroads in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...

. In 2007, RailAmerica was acquired by

Fortress Investment Group Fortress Investment Group is an American investment management firm based in New York City. Fortress was founded as a private equity firm in 1998 by Wes Edens, Rob Kauffman, and Randal Nardone. When Fortress launched on the NYSE in February ...

. Before that, it traded on the

New York Stock Exchange The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed ...

with the

ticker symbol A ticker symbol or stock symbol is an abbreviation used to uniquely identify publicly traded shares of a particular stock on a particular stock market. In short, ticker symbols are arrangements of symbols or characters (generally Latin letters ...

RRA. It was relisted in October 2009 with the ticker symbol RA. On June 30, 2010, the company announced that it had acquired

Atlas Railroad Construction An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a bundle of maps of Earth or of a region of Earth. Atlases have traditionally been bound into book form, but today many atlases are in multimedia formats. In addition to presenting geographi ...

, a construction and maintenance company operating in the Northeast and Midwest United States, for US$24 million. In April 2011, RailAmerica made its first shortline purchase in over five years by initiating a deal with Gulf and Ohio Railways to acquire three Alabama shortlines for $12.7 million. On July 23, 2012, Genesee & Wyoming Inc. announced that it intended to purchase RailAmerica in a deal valued at $1.39 billion. Approval of the purchase was granted by the U.S.

Surface Transportation Board The Surface Transportation Board (STB) of the United States is a federal, bipartisan, independent adjudicatory board. The STB was established on January 1, 1996, to assume some of the regulatory functions that had been administered by the Interstat ...

on December 19, 2012. While awaiting the decision, Genesee & Wyoming put RailAmerica control in the hands of a trust. They assumed control on December 28, 2012, and the company was in the process of integration to G&W.

Former subsidiaries

RailAmerica controlled the following railroads. It acquired some through purchase of other holding companies: RailLink Canada in July 1999,

RailTex RailTex was a transportation holding company that specialized in owning and operating short line railroads across North America. Based in San Antonio, Texas, the public company was a leader in making unprofitable lines shed by Class I railroads ...

in February 2000, ParkSierra and StatesRail in January 2002, and the rail properties of Alcoa in September 2005. In addition to those listed below, RailAmerica's prior owner,

, purchased the

Florida East Coast Railway The Florida East Coast Railway is a Class II railroad operating in the U.S. state of Florida, currently owned by Grupo México. Built primarily in the last quarter of the 19th century and the first decade of the 20th century, the FEC was a ...

(FEC) in September 2007 from

Florida East Coast Industries Florida East Coast Industries (FECI) is Florida's oldest and largest commercial real estate, transportation, and infrastructure holding company. Based in Coral Gables, FECI is the direct lineal descendant of the various companies founded by pione ...

. Although Fortress maintained a level of common control between the two railroads, FEC was never made a formal part of the RailAmerica family, and Fortress did not include FEC in the RailAmerica spinoff. RailAmerica was founded by Gary O. Marino and John H. Marino in 1986.

References

* RailAmerica (September 9, 2005),
RailAmerica Selected to Acquire Four Railroads from Alcoa; Additionally Announces Lease with CSX Transportation for the 48 Mile Fremont Branch
'. Retrieved September 13, 2005. * Yahoo Finance,
RailAmerica Inc. (RRA)
'. Retrieved September 13, 2005.

External links

Official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Railamerica Companies formerly listed on the New York Stock Exchange Companies based in Jacksonville, Florida United States railroad holding companies Canadian railroad holding companies Genesee & Wyoming 2007 mergers and acquisitions 2009 initial public offerings 2012 mergers and acquisitions