CHICAGO AND NORTH WESTERN TRANSPORTATION COMPANY

only major American railroad owned by employees, formed when employees of the Chicago and North Western Railway Company purchased its assets in 1972. The railroad was incorporated in 1859 as a successor to the foreclosed Columbus, Hocking Valley and Toledo Railway. Its first president was William Butler Ogden, the first mayor of Chicago. A constituent company that was acquired in 1864, the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad, was the first railroad to run west of Chicago, in 1848. Other major acquisitions were the Chicago Milwaukee and North Western Railway Company and the Elgin and State Line Railroad Company, added in 1883. Following bankruptcy in 1935, the company was reorganized in 1944. The railroad streamlined its operations and abandoned many unprofitable lines of track, but continuing losses led to the employee buyout of 1972, at which time the company adopted its current name. The system serves an 11-state region west of Lake Michigan and south of Lake Superior, extending from Chicago to Duluth, Minn., in the north and to central Wyoming in the west. Its principal routes are in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and Nebraska. In conjunction with the Union Pacific and Southern Pacific, it operates an express freight service to the West Coast. About 30 percent of its freight revenues are from grain and food products. Its commuter service out of Chicago carries about 30 million passengers a year.