West Michigan

Company History: In 1995, West Jersey Railroad lost their lease on their lines in New Jersey and moved in the middle of the night to rural Michigan and assumed a new identity, West Michigan Railroad. They replaced the bankrupt Kalamazoo Lake Shore & Chicago as the operator of a former Pere Marquette line between Hartford and Paw Paw, Michigan. Since then, the line has been abandoned from a point 2 miles east of Hartford, all the way to Paw Paw. Hanson Cold Storage is the sole customer on the remaining portion of the route. The West Michigan Railroad is part of the Pioneer RailCorp family of shortlines.

Successor/Parent History: Pioneer Railcorp is a railroad holding company that owns short line railroads and several other railroad related businesses including a railroad equipment company and a contract switching services company. Railroad transportation is provided by the Company’s wholly-owned short line railroad subsidiaries ("Pioneer Lines".) Pioneer Lines rail system is primarily devoted to carrying freight and currently consists of 23 rail operations in 13 states with over 600 miles of track serving over 100 customers. .

Customers know Pioneer Lines and its dedication to providing reliable and dependable rail services through its North American railroad subsidiaries. Pioneer’s customers include some of the most successful corporations in America. The commodities moved by Pioneer Lines are primary products needed for the economy in good times and bad. Examples of these commodities are agricultural products such as cottonseed, corn, fertilizer, meal, peanuts, soybeans, and wheat, along with other products such as alcohol, baby food, charcoal, chemicals, flooring materials, frozen foods, heavy equipment, lumber, paper products, plastics, scrap metal, steel (finished,) and wood products (finished.)

Brief History: The U.S. is a country of 50 states covering a vast swath of North America, with Alaska in the northwest and Hawaii extending the nation’s presence into the Pacific Ocean. Major Atlantic Coast cities are New York, a global finance and culture center, and capital Washington, DC. Midwestern metropolis Chicago is known for influential architecture and on the west coast, Los Angeles' Hollywood is famed for filmmaking.