Lake State Names New Top Leader

Michigan-based regional railroad Lake State Railway has named Mike Stickel as its next president and CEO.

He will replace John Rickoff, who will become chairman of the board of directors, on July 15.

Stickel is currently the railroad’s executive vice president and chief operating officer.

That role will be filled by Mark Rosner while executive vice president and chief financial officer Kevin Mitrzyk will assume an expanded role as chief administrative officer, adding human resources and government affairs functions.

Stickel joined Lake State in 2013 from Watco, where he was a regional marketing vice president. He had previously held positions with the Indiana Rail Road and equipment leasing companies including Helm Financial. and CIT Group.

Rosner comes to Lake State from Carload Express Inc., where he was president and CEO. Mitrzyk joined Lake State as an accountant in February 1993, and was promoted to controller in November of that year. He became chief financial officer in 2003 and was promoted to executive vice president in 2018.

Rickoff has served as Lake State’s CEO since 2010. His railroading career includes time with Chicago & North Western, Soo Line, Canadian Pacific, and the Indiana Rail Road.

MDOT Awards Grants for Rail Projects

Ten rail freight projects will receive grants from the Michigan Rail Enhancement Grant Program.

The Michigan Department of Transportation said the $16 million in grants being awarded will improve freight-rail safety; provide operational efficiency, accessibility, capacity; and improve track conditions.

The projects are being supplemented by $11 million in money being put up by the grant recipients. The state grants provide funding for up to 70 percent of a project’s cost.

The largest grant of nearly $3.9 million was awarded to the Adrian & Blissfield Rail Road to replace rail, ties and ballast, surface track and complete yard improvements.

Lake State Railway received four grants totaling more than $4.9 million for various projects, including the construction of a new transload facility.

A complete list of the grant recipients and their projects is available here.

Lake State Acquiring 6 SD70M Locomotives

Michigan regional railroad Lake State Railway has acquired its first wide cab locomotives.

It picked up six SD70Ms once operated by Union Pacific. UP leased the units and has returned them.

The first of the SD70Ms, No. 6431, was recently repainted by Metro East Industries in East St. Louis, Illinois.

Lake State has an all-EMD motive power fleet to cover its 375 miles of track. Most of its locomotives are 40-series four and six axle units.

The SD70Ms will be Lake State’s first units to be equipped with positive train control.

Equity Firm Invests in Lake State Railway

An international private equity firm has invested in Michigan regional railroad Lake State Railway.

The scope of the investment by Antin Infrastructure Partners was not disclosed.

In a news release, the two parties described it as a “strategic investment” that positions the railroad for growth.

Lake State has 375 miles of track in the eastern half of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula, most of which stretches from Plymouth north to Gaylord and Alpena.

Founded in 1992, the railroad serves more than 60 shippers a month and handled more than 60,000 carloads in 2021.

Antin has more than $24 billion in assets with offices in Paris, London, New York, Singapore and Luxembourg.

Lake State Named Regional of the Year

Lake State Railway of Michigan has been named the 2021 regional railroad of the year by Railway Age magazine.

An Ohio short line, the Belpre Industrial Parkersburg Railroad, was awarded honorable mention in the short line of the year competition, which was won by the Memphis Line of R.J. Corman.

Lake State is a 373-mile Class II carrier serving primarily the northern half of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula.

It became a regional carrier in 2019 by acquiring the CSX Saginaw Subdivision between its namesake city and Plymouth.

This year Lake State is expected to handle 65,000 carloads, up from the 30,000 carloads of 2018.

It has won an American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association award for marketing initiatives in three of the past four years.

The 48-mile Class III BIPR is located in far southern Ohio and interchanges with CSX in Parkersburg, West Viginia.

It serves industries in metals, plastics and petrochemicals in the Ohio River Valley.

A relatively new operation, BIPR has upgraded 21 miles of track from excepted to Federal Railroad Administration Class 2 standards.

In its 12 months of operation the railroad has had zero reportable injuries and increased total revenue movements 84 percent compared with the three-year average of the line in previous years.

Other projects undertaken by BIPR have included converting several barge and truck movements to rail for existing customers (coal, residual fuel, asphalt); initiating new product movements for existing customers (ferroalloys, carbon, plastics); adding three new storage-in-transit customers supporting regional industry; and investing more than $2 million into equipment, rail refurbishment and upgrades, and new sidings.

Michigan Short Line Honored by ASLRRA

A Michigan short line railroad is one of four carriers receiving a business development award for excellence in growing traffic in partnership with customers and local economic development authorities.

The Lake State Railway received the honor from the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association.

In a news release, the short line trade association said the award recognizes carriers that have developed a keen understanding of customers’ needs, identified opportunities to grow business, and implemented plans to benefit their customers and communities.

Lake State was recognized for its work in developing transload business at seven sites in Michigan, receiving state grant money for five of them.

3 Short Lines Win CRISI Grants

Three short-line railroads are among nearly four dozen recipients of more than $326 million in grant funding under the Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements and Special Transportation Circumstances programs.

Forty-five projects in 29 states received grants that will be used to help pay for state and local infrastructure projects designed to improve the safety, efficiency and reliability of intercity passenger- and freight-rail systems.

Grant applicants included state departments of transportation, municipalities, port authorities, rail commissions, Amtrak and short lines.

A third of the total grant funding in CRISI grants went to regional and short line railroads, said the Federal Railroad Administration in a news release.

It included $8.7 million to replace 30 miles of rail and upgrade crossings and signals on Lake State Railway in north-central Michigan, $7.2 million for the Indiana Rail Road to replace nine timber rail bridges with concrete ones, and $2.8 million for the Chicago South Shore and South Bend Railroad to upgrade 7.5 miles of track.

Federal Grant Goes to Michigan Short Line

The Federal Railroad Administration has awarded a $8.7 million Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements grant to the Michigan Department of Transportation and Lake State Railway.

The money will be used to improve the short-line railroad’s Mackinaw Subdivision. Lake State has 375 miles of track in Michigan.

“Investments made with this grant along with money contributed by the state of Michigan and [us] will help the growing industrial and agricultural base located along the line,” said LSRC President and CEO John Rickoff in a statement.

Boats and Trains in Port Huron

Here are two photos of the new Lake State Railway operation in Port Huron, Michigan, mentioned about a week ago in the blog. The first photo is pushing cars into Dunn Paper while the Algoma Central boat Radcliffe R. Latimer heads out into Lake Huron. The second is a grab shot of the sharp looking MP-15 under the Blue Water Bridge to Canada. Both photos were taken on June 20, 2018.

Photographs by Roger Durfee

Lake States Leases CN Track in Port Huron

Canadian National has leased a short stretch of track in Port Huron, Michigan, to the Lake State Railway.

The track in question is the HR Track which runs from Port Huron Yard to the and city’s waterfront on the Saint Clair River.

There are two active freight shippers on the spur, Domtar Paper and Dunn Paper.

A drawbridge on the line over the Black River will remain the responsibility of CN.