WORCESTER – Providence & Worcester Railroad Co. said late yesterday it managed to earn a second-quarter profit comparable to a year ago thanks to lower expenses and a court settlement even as revenue fell 25 percent.
P&W (Nasdaq: PWX) posted a profit of $322,000, or 7 cents a diluted share, in the quarter ended June 30, nearly identical to its profit of $320,000, or 7 cents a diluted share, in the same period a year earlier.
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Quarterly operating revenue sank 24.5 percent to $6.11 million, down from $8.09 million a year earlier, “primarily attributable to declines in the volume of both conventional and container freight traffic,” the company said.
“As a result of national and international economic conditions, shipments of most commodities handled by the company continued to decline during the quarter,” P&W said in a statement. “This is consistent with the experience of the railroad industry in North America in general.”
Earnings were bolstered, however, by $950,000 the railroad received from a court settlement and the granting of a permanent easement. The company also reduced expenses 13.7 percent to $6.73 million, mostly due to the lower cost of diesel fuel.
For the first six months of the year, P&W posted a loss of $1.1 million, or 22 cents a share, nearly double the loss of $605,000, or 13 cents a share, the company experienced in the first half of 2008. Revenue fell 22 percent to $11.05 million year-over-year in the first half of 2009.
“While there have recently been some signs that traffic volumes may begin to improve, management cannot predict when and if economic conditions will improve sufficiently to enable the company to return to profitable operations,” the statement continued.
Providence and Worcester Railroad Co. (Nasdaq: PWX) is a regional freight railroad that operates more than 500 miles of track in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York, including exclusive freight rights on the Amtrak line between Attleboro and New Haven, Conn. Additional information is available at PWRR.com.
