Leases were often used as a method of acquiring a railroad when a direct purchase or merger by exchange of stock was not feasible for a variety of reasons. Examples include New York Central's very long term leases of the Big Four and Michigan Central, PRR's lease of the Pan Handle, NKP's lease of W&LE, etc.
For MRL specifically, look up anything it or BNSF has filed with the Federal Surface Transportation Board (STB) and/ or Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) - might be a lengthy search, though.
Otherwise, for general info see this article here on "Trackage and Haulage Rights":
http://trn.trains.com/railroads/abcs-of-railroading/2006/05/trackage-and-haulage-rights
There are also a few articles on this kind of thing in the older issues of Trains.
Also, see Roy Blanchard/ The Blanchard Company's webpage - http://www.rblanchard.com/ - esp. the "Shortline Benchmarks" spreadsheet at:
http://www.rblanchard.com/resources/texts/benchmarks.html
which indicates that "Property Leases" are typically about 0.3% of Total Operating Revenues (line 32).
- Paul North.
Ok thanks!
Lease specifications are usually unique to the property being leased and the details of the lease are normally confidential between the parties involved.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
Hi all. I have seen online that railroads sometimes lease out sections of track to shortlines. I just wanted to know how all that works. How much does the big railroad charge the little railroad? MRL is in a 60 year lease with the BNSF, but how much does the BNSF charge MRL? Is it a monthly, fixed rate, or like trackage rights and the big railroad charges per car-mile over the railroad line? Thanks!
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