For Immediate Release

For Additional Information, Contact:

David Fink

Executive Vice President

Guilford Rail System

(978) 663-1186

Washington, DC, May 2, 2002: Guilford Rail System was presented with a prestigious E. H. Harriman Award for the year 2001. In winning the award, Guilford achieved an injury ratio of 1.20 injuries per 200,000 man-hours worked. This ratio, in fact, placed Guilford as number one among the Regional and Class I railroads in the country.

The Harriman Award is the one commendation that everyone in the railroad industry strives for. It is the acknowledgment and reminder of the importance of a safe workplace.

In discussing the importance of the award, Guilford President Tom Steiniger commented, "A safe work place doesn't just happen. It takes complete and total dedication by every manager and every employee on the property. Our people should take great pride in the accomplishments of 2001, but we must strive for zero injuries in 2002. Winning the Harriman is both an acknowledgment of the past year's success and a call to do better in the future."

The annual rail employee safety awards were founded in 1913 by the late Mrs. Mary W. Harriman in memory of her husband, Edward H. Harriman, a pioneer in American railroading. For many years, the program was sponsored by two sons, E. Roland Harriman and the Honorable W. Averell Harriman, both now deceased. The awards are currently administered under the auspices of the E. H. Harriman Memorial Awards Institute, with support from the Mary W. Harriman Foundation.

At the time the Harriman Awards were founded, railroading was considered among the nation's most dangerous occupations. However, employee injury rates have declined sharply since then - with a 70 percent decline just since 1980 - and today railroad employees have injury rates comparable to those experienced by employees in retail stores and lower than those experienced by employees in other modes of transportation.

Winners are chosen by a committee of individuals in the transportation field. Awards are granted to railroads on the basis of the lowest casualty rates per 200,000 employee-hours worked - a formula that takes into account the volume of work performed, as well as the number of fatalities, injuries and occupational illnesses confirmed by the Federal Railroad Administration.

In recent years Guilford has won Harrimans in 1994, 1995, 1997, and 1999. The company, headquartered in North Billerica, Massachusetts, operates freight railroads in all the New England states with the exception of Rhode Island, as well as New York State and Atlantic Canada.

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