Railroad Receiverships and Reorganizations

Report Outline
American Railroada at Present in Receivership
Present Means of Avoiding Railroad Receiverships
Cases of the Nickel Plate and the Frisco
Reasons for Avoiding Railroad Receiverships
Reorganization Vs. Additional Borrowing
The President's Plan and Pending Legislation
Special Focus

American Railroada at Present in Receivership

During The Year 1932, the third year of the depression, five Class I railroads were placed in receivership. They were the Central of Georgia, the St. Louis-San Francisco, the New Orleans Great Northern, the Norfolk Southern, and the Mobile & Ohio Railroad.

During the second year of the depression, 1931, four Class I roads were placed in receivership: the Wabash, the Ann Arbor, the Fort Smith & Western, and the Florida East Coast Railway. In the first year of the depression only one major railroad receivership was decreed—that of the Seaboard Air Line, in December, 1930.

The ten Class I railroads placed in the hands of receivers during the last three years operated 17,964 miles of line. In addition to these depression receiverships, there are four Class I receiverships dating from earlier years. Including these roads, there wore 20,618 miles of Class I line being operated by receivers at the beginning of 1933. The total mileage of Class I roads is 242,292. Less than 9 per cent of this mileage is now in receivership.