Penn Central Transportation Company
The Penn Central ( PC), full name: Pennsylvania New York Central Transportation Company, was an American railroad company, headquartered in Philadelphia. It was formed on 1 February 1968 from the merger of the two arch rival New York Central ( NYC) and Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR ) and went on June 21, 1970 in bankruptcy. She was the sixth-largest U.S. companies and produced the largest bankruptcy in history up to that point. The Penn Central had a network of about 32,000 kilometers in length. The network reached the states of Illinois ( Peoria, St. Louis, Chicago), Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, New York, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Rhode Iceland and Massachusetts and Montreal in Canada.
History
On 8 May 1962, the shareholders of the New York Central ( NYC ) and the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR ) agreed to a merger of the two companies. The Interstate Commerce Commission approved the merger with different requirements.
So should the bankrupt or the bankrupt threatened New York, Susquehanna & Western, New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad and the Lehigh Valley Railroad are adopted. The latter two companies were acquired by Penn Central December 31, 1968 or January 1, 1969, the former managed to remain independent of the Penn Central.
The fusion
On 1 February 1968, the PRR was founded in 1846 changed its name to Pennsylvania New York Central Transportation Co. and merged simultaneously with the NYC. On 8 May 1968, the name was changed to Penn Central Company. On 1 October 1969, the Penn Central Company in Penn Central Transportation renamed and a subsidiary of a newly formed Penn Central Company.
The two companies were rivals for decades and the company philosophies were very different. Since the merger many management positions were filled by employees of the PRR, left many, especially young, innovative leaders of the former NYC the company. These internal structural problems came the decline of the steel industry in the northeastern United States, the growing competition from the truck traffic and the strong regulation of the entire railway system. In addition, the company now had large excess capacity, particularly in the infrastructure. On the one hand, there were four - and sechsgleisige stretches where a double track line was sufficient for other covered both former companies almost the same area east of the Allegheny Mountains from.
Before the merger, both companies in the black. In the first year together with a deficit of $ 2.8 million in 1969 and one of $ 83 million was recorded. After the loss had increased to $ 325.8 million in 1970, had to be filed on June 21, 1970 bankruptcy. Despite the bankruptcy proceedings of the operation had to be kept going because there were no alternatives.
As part of the bankruptcy proceedings in 1974 found that the method can not be successfully concluded. To create a rescue plan for the Penn Central, was therefore formed on the basis of the Regional Rail Reorganization Act of 1973, the State Unites States Railway Association ( USRA ). The result was the creation of the Consolidated Rail Corporation ( Conrail ), which took over the business and operating assets of Penn Central and several other companies from 1 April 1976.
Passenger
Due to the high market share in the Northeast Corridor Washington - Philadelphia - New York - Boston, the company was committed to continue to offer a high quality passenger service there. Thus, together with the U.S. Department of Transportation new trains were tested. This was on the one hand the introduction of the 176 km / h EMUs "Metro Liner" between New York and Washington and the other on the route Boston - New York, the United Aircraft Turbo Trains. However, the latter not proven itself.
From 1 May 1971, the long-distance passenger was taken over by Amtrak. The transport services were operated by PC on and manifest only after the founding of Conrail by this. The local transport authorities (MARC, Metro-North, MBTA, SEPTA and NJ Transit) took over in 1983 the rail transport of Conrail.
Others
After the railway property was bought by Conrail, shifted the remaining holding company Penn Central Company 's business activities on lines of business that were previously operated only in passing. The company rose strengthened in the real estate and insurance industry. On March 25, 1994, the company renamed itself American Premier Underwriters (APU ) and was acquired by the American Financial Group ( AFG ) in 1995. This society is still a shareholder with other Class I Railroads Amtrak.
The Penn Central Company or APU was the owner of the long-term leases to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority train station, Grand Central Terminal, but these sold in the late fall of 2006, including the existing lease to the company Midtown TDR Ventures.