ILLINOIS CENTRAL GULF RAILROAD COMPANY

(IC) U.S. railroad formed in 1972 by the merger of the Illinois Central Railroad Company and the Gulf, Mobile, and Ohio Railroad Company. The Illinois Central Railroad was chartered in 1851, the first of many railroads to receive a grant of land upon completion of its line. In 1856 the line from Chicago to Cairo, Ill., was opened, thereby earning the line 2,500,000 acres. At Cairo passengers and freight transferred to Mississippi River steamers for further travel until a bridge across the Mississippi was opened in 1889. While it was expanding, the IC absorbed more than 100 smaller railroads, reaching Kansas City and Omaha to the west, Indianapolis and Louisville to the east, and the Gulf of Mexico to the south. After the merger with the Gulf, Mobile and Ohio, which also provided service from Chicago to the Gulf of Mexico, the line operated in 13 states, extending from Chicago in the north to New Orleans and other gulf ports in the south and from Indianapolis and Louisville in the east to Kansas City, Omaha, and Sioux Falls, S.D., in the west. In 1985, however, the company sold its lines extending from Chicago westward to Iowa and Omaha. The railroad's freight revenues come from the transport of coal, farm products, and a variety of industrial materials. It operates passenger trains for the National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak) and a commuter service in the Chicago area. The railroad is a wholly owned subsidiary of IC Industries, Inc. (formed in 1962), a holding company that has subsidiaries in other industries ranging from soft drinks to automotive parts.