Goderich–Exeter Railway


The Goderich–Exeter Railway is a short line freight railway that operates around of track in Southern Ontario. Created in 1992, it was the first short line railway in Canada to be purchased from a class I railway, in this case Canadian National Railway. It took over operation of further CN trackage in 1998. As of 2004, the railway has 44 employees. It is headquartered in Stratford, Ontario, and owned by short-line railroad holding company Genesee & Wyoming.

History

The Goderich–Exeter Railway was created in 1992 by its owner, RailTex, to operate over Canadian National Railway's Goderich Subdivision, of track between Stratford and Goderich, Ontario that was acquired from CN. The railway started operation on April 3, 1992. On November 15, 1998, the Goderich–Exeter Railway took over operation of CN's Guelph Subdivision, which runs over between Silver Junction and London, Ontario.
The railway had expressed an interest in acquiring the former CN branchline from Stratford to Owen Sound, but was unable to do so as a result of changes to Ontario labour law which made the acquisition uneconomic.

Freight services

The railway handles around 25,000 carloads of freight annually, consisting mainly of automobile parts, salt and fertilizer, wheat, grains, soy meal and rice. From Stratford the line serves the east west corridor of Huron and Perth Counties serving Mitchell, Dublin, Seaforth, Clinton, and Goderich. There is also a spur line running south from Clinton, serving, Brucefield, Hensall, Exeter, and Centralia.
The spur line to Elmira serves a Uniroyal plant. Traffic on the Goderich Subdivision mainly consists of salt from the Sifto Canada salt mines in Goderich, and construction equipment produced by a Volvo Motor Graders plant in Goderich. It also connects with the port facility at the Port of Goderich.

Interchanges

The Goderich–Exeter Railway interchanges with CN in Stratford yard.

Locomotives

As of 2017, the railway owns 13 locomotives, which were acquired used. Its first four locomotives, purchased between 1992 and 1994, were given names of Shakespearean characters, as Stratford is the home of the Canadian Shakespearean Festival. Unit #'s 178, 179, and 180 have since been sold to other railways. GEXR was acquired by Genesee & Wyoming Inc in 2012. The railway also leases a few locomotives. All of its locomotives were made by General Motors Electro-Motive Division and include EMD GP38s, EMD GP35s, EMD GP40s, and EMD SD40-2s. As of March 2017, some of their locomotives are owned by subsidiaries of Genesee & Wyoming Inc.

Roster

List of GEXR's active units
EMD GP40 4095, built in May-1966 Nee SOR 4095 Nee Canadian National Railway 4004
EMD GP38-3 2073, rebuilt April 2017 Nee GEXR 3821
EMD GP38-2 2117, built in Dec-1972 Nee RLHH 2117

Return of CN

After a 21-year lease to GEXR, CN took over GEXR's yards and the Guelph Subdivision on Nov. 15, 2018. Metrolinx assumed ownership and responsibility for the Guelph Sub from Georgetown to Kitchener. However, GEXR still runs on the Goderich and Exeter Sub.