Providence and Worcester Railroad Company (PWX)

Providence and Worcester Railroad Company was a regional freight railroad based in Worcester, Massachusetts. It owned about 163 miles of track in Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut and held trackage rights over roughly 350 more miles reaching to New York City. The railroad hauled around 43,000 carloads and intermodal units a year, carrying aggregates, chemicals, automobiles, metals, lumber and other freight, and it served the ports of Providence, Davisville and New Haven along with a customs-bonded intermodal yard in Worcester.

The company was chartered in 1844 and is one of the oldest railroads in the United States. It was leased to larger systems for much of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, eventually becoming part of the New Haven Railroad. After the New Haven was folded into the troubled Penn Central in 1969, the railroad's owners sought to regain control, and the P&W resumed independent operations in early 1973. Over the following years it expanded by acquiring former Conrail lines in southern New England.

As an independent short line, the railroad was publicly traded for decades and its shares were listed on Nasdaq under the symbol PWX. It remained a small company by market value, with revenue of roughly $30 million a year, and was known for long-tenured leadership and a close relationship with the industrial customers along its lines. The company also earned income from leasing property and granting rights of way along its corridor.

In 2016, after a review of strategic options, the board agreed to sell the company. Genesee & Wyoming, an operator of short line and regional railroads that already ran the neighboring New England Central and Connecticut Southern railroads, offered $25.00 per share in cash. The deal was announced in August 2016 and was valued at about $126 million. Shareholders approved the merger, and the companies agreed to place the stock in a voting trust pending review by the Surface Transportation Board.

Genesee & Wyoming completed the purchase on November 1, 2016, and the P&W's stock was delisted, with holders receiving cash. The railroad continued to operate under its own name as part of Genesee & Wyoming's New England operations after regulators cleared the combination. Genesee & Wyoming was itself taken private in 2019 by a consortium led by Brookfield Infrastructure and GIC, so the former PWX business is no longer owned by a listed company.