"Hi: I'm Tom Hoback, president and founder of The Indiana Rail Road Company. Welcome to our home on the World Wide Web. The Indiana Rail Road Company provides service over a network extending approximately 500 miles from Chicago, IL to Louisville, KY, and Indianapolis, IN to east central Illinois.

I've always believed that if you could run a railroad like a business and not like a conventional railroad, you could do well. We started with a railroad that was all but abandoned in the 1970s. Since we acquired it in 1986, we've increased our traffic more than tenfold.

Our railroad carries coal for electric utilities, liquid sweeteners and sugar for Hershey chocolate, ethanol produced in Illinois, refrigerators manufactured by General Electric, and numerous other commodities, such as petroleum products, lumber, plastics, and grain.

Regional railroads such as ours provide a vital link between local and regional shippers and the large, long-haul railroads that move freight from coast to coast via Chicago, IL, and our many other important interchanges.

Because we're a locally based railroad, we're able to give our customers more attention and better service. And, with innovations like our reload center, we're able to cultivate relationships with customers who aren't even located near our tracks.

Being locally managed also benefits the communities we serve. Our top management is more accessible to people in our communities, and we contribute to economic development, land planning and community safety.

Welcome to our site, and have fun exploring!"