Edward L. Moyers
| Edward L. Moyers | |
|---|---|
| Born |
October 3, 1928 near Meridian, Mississippi |
| Died | June 5, 2006 (aged 77) Naples, Florida |
| Known for | railroad executive |
Edward L. Moyers, Jr. (October 3, 1928 – June 5, 2006) was an American railroad executive of the 20th century. He served as president and CEO of several railroads including MidSouth Rail, Illinois Central Railroad and Southern Pacific Railroad. In 1995, Railway Age magazine named Moyers its "Railroader of the Year".
Edward, Jr., was the son of Edward L. and Lucille (Lewis) Moyers. He was born on October 3, 1928, near Meridian, Mississippi. Moyers graduated from Louisiana Tech University with a business degree in 1955.
Moyers worked as an executive with the Peoria and Pekin Union Railway.
In the 1980s when Illinois Central Gulf Railroad was spinning off excess lines, New York based investment firm Prospect Group purchased 412 miles (663 km) of track to form MidSouth Rail and installed Moyers as the new railroad company's first president. The purchase included the assets of Gulf and Mississippi Railroad (restructured as SouthRail Corporation), which was also owned by MidSouth Corporation, MidSouth Rail's parent company. Immediately after the purchase was complete, train schedules were updated to double service between Shreveport and Meridian. Moyers worked to improve and rebuild these lines to allow trains to increase their average speeds from 10 miles per hour (16 km/h) to 25 mph (40 km/h). After Moyers left MidSouth, the lines were later acquired by Kansas City Southern Railroad in 1993, effective on January 1, 1994.
In 1989, Moyers was appointed as president of Illinois Central Railroad by its then new owners, Prospect Group. The purchase was, in fact, all part of a plan devised by Moyers to return the Illinois Central to profitability. He soon set to work reducing costs to the railroad including cutting payroll and selling excess . One of the more controversial projects Moyers took on as president of Illinois Central was to reduce the railroad's trackage from a completely double tracked line with ABS to a single track mainline with CTC signals. This project began in May 1989 and was completed on August 28, 1991. The scrap materials removed from the single-tracking project were sold for approximately $50 million and further reduced the railroad's supply budget by $70 million; installing CTC was estimated to save the railroad about $100 million. Moyers also tried to bring the MidSouth lines back into the Illinois Central portfolio with a takeover bid announced on December 3, 1990, a move that was seen as positive by rail analysts at the time. But MidSouth, now led by Moyers' former business partner Mark Levin, rejected the offer. Moyers retired from Illinois Central in 1993 and was succeeded as president of that railroad by E. Hunter Harrison. In 1998, Illinois Central was acquired by Canadian National Railway.
...
Wikipedia