3i Group-backed Regional Rail LLC recently announced that it acquired the assets of Clinton Terminal Railroad, which will be owned and operated by Regional Rail subsidiary Carolina Coastal Railway (CLNA).

The acquisition expands Regional Rail’s presence in North Carolina, which the company built by acquiring Carolina Coastal Railway in 2020. 

“We are excited to partner with the team at Clinton Terminal and view this as a natural expansion of our footprint in North Carolina. We believe there are attractive opportunities in the market and look forward to building upon the railroad’s existing operations,” shared Al Sauer, CEO of Regional Rail, in a press release.

Chris Spiceland, Vice President Marketing & Sales, Regional-Rail LLC shared that the acquisition of Clinton Terminal will add about three miles of rail line. 

“We are proud of what we have built at Clinton Terminal over the years and believe that Regional Rail will be a great steward of the railroad, in addition to a strong partner to our customers going forward,” remarked Bob Lowe, CEO of Clinton Terminal, in a press release.

Regional Rail provides freight transportation, car storage and transloading services across the United States and western Canada. In addition to freight rail services, Regional Rail provides railroad crossing signal design, construction, inspection and maintenance services to a diverse base of short-line and industrial customers via the company’s Diamondback Signal subsidiary.

“We’re always looking for new acquisitions, new partnerships, you know, we're very flexible… we don't come in as the new sheriff in town and fire everybody and put our own people [in], that's definitely not what we do. We work with the existing infrastructure, use existing personnel, you know, we kept all the people on Clinton, down there. So we work with who's there and we try to just make it a little better than it was,” shared Spiceland. 

Expansion of rail service demonstrates economic growth in an area and promotes new business.