Wisconsin Central
The Rail World team has a truly unique experience
throughout the world in railway acquisition,
privatization, investment and development. The
achievements of Rail World team members began in
1987 when Mr. Edward A. Burkhardt formed a company,
Wisconsin Central, to acquire a rail system, which
the then owner, Soo Line Railroad, considered
unprofitable and wished to sell. Mr. Burkhardt
formed an acquisition team and assembled the finance
to make the purchase.
Within a short period Wisconsin was transformed into
a profitable railroad and over the next 12 years
underwent remarkable growth. The system has
expanded to 4,480-route km, extending across the
border into the province of Ontario, Canada.
In 1991, Wisconsin Central made a highly successful
Initial Public Offering, and became publicly owned.
The results under Mr. Burkhardt's management of
Wisconsin Central were consistently impressive with
the result that annual revenues grew from less than
$100 million to over $350 million. Wisconsin
Central was one of the few US railways earning its
cost of capital, and its investors were well
rewarded.
New Zealand
Mr. Burkhardt headed the acquisition group that
purchased New Zealand Rail Ltd. (subsequently to
become Tranz Rail Holdings) from the New Zealand
government in 1993, and subsequently developed the
company into a model for other nations to emulate.
As Chairman of Tranz Rail, he piloted another
dramatic turn-around of the business. Tranz
Rail was floated on the New Zealand stock market in
1996 and was consistently profitable during Mr.
Burkhardt's involvement.
Australia
Australia was the location of a further strategic
acquisition, in the state of Tasmania, where the
network of just below 900 km was acquired in late
1997. Although a small, narrow gauge network,
it needed private sector management, investment and
innovation to revive the business, which by the time
of privatization was losing millions of dollars
annually. Australian Transport Network (ATN)
was formed to make the acquisition and to invest in
further transportation opportunities on the
Australian mainland. ATN, with Mr. Burkhardt
as Chairman, doubled rail business in Tasmania and
achieved consistent profitability.
United Kingdom
The most challenging opportunity to attract Mr.
Burkhardt's attention came with the decision of the
United Kingdom government in 1994 to privatize the
entire national railway system of some 16,500 km -
by far the single biggest railway privatization in
the world. English, Welsh and Scottish Railway
(EWS) was formed with Mr. Burkhardt as Chairman and
Chief Executive Officer in 1995 and by 1996 had
successfully bid for the four rail freight companies
spun out of British Rail, which carried most of the
UK's rail freight traffic plus a contract to operate
charter passenger trains and a dedicated national
service for the Royal Mail. EWS commenced a
substantial investment program, which included 280
new locomotives and 2,500 new wagons, plus a $20
million under-one-roof operations control and
customer service center at Doncaster- the first of
its kind in the UK.
Overall, since privatization rail freight handled by
EWS had increased by some 35%. This company,
directed by Edward Burkhardt until July 1999,
operated in an open-access environment. It
handled 93% of all rail ton kilometers. EWS
carries around 100 million tons of freight per year
with 6,000 train operations each week. The
company has a fleet of just under 1,000 locomotives,
some 12,000 freight cars and 6,000 employees.
It has been consistently profitable.
Moving
the World 
