OmniTRAX lands lucrative deal to operate Long Island rail terminal
8/8/2025
By Jeff Stagl, Managing Editor
A short-line holding company that controls 31 railroads, OmniTRAX Inc. operates in more than a dozen states. And opportunities to conduct business in more states is very appealing to OmniTRAX leaders.
That’s why the company sought to capitalize on a chance to serve a rail terminal in New York. More specifically, on heavily populated Long Island.
OmniTRAX recently landed a deal to become the exclusive railroad operator of Brookhaven Rail Terminal (BRT) on the island that handles various commodities, aggregates and building materials. It’s the first multimodal/freight-rail facility on the island to provide rail-based shipping, warehousing and logistics services to the seaboard market.
BRT is located in Yaphank, New York, adjacent to the New York and Atlantic Railway, MTA Long Island Rail Road and Long Island Expressway (Interstate 495). The terminal provides direct access to the northeast market, global ports and the national rail network.
OmniTRAX became involved in the BRT operator opportunity about six months ago because of The Home Depot, one of the company’s major customers, says Nathan Brown, OmniTRAX’s executive vice president of strategy and corporate development. OmniTRAX’s Great Western Railway of Colorado LLC currently serves a Home Depot facility at a logistics park in Mead, Colorado.
OmniTRAX has submitted a filing to the STB seeking approval to replace Brookhaven Rail LLC as the BRT’s operator and to lease the terminal’s track. OmniTRAX plans to establish a subsidiary named Sunrise Industrial Rail LLC to serve as the operator. OmniTRAX Inc.Officials from The Home Depot asked OmniTRAX executives to help the retailer out with its transloading needs at the BRT. At the same time, BRT owner Northpoint Development was seeking a new operator for the terminal after waste management firm Winters Brothers decided the Brookhaven facility no longer was a core asset.
In 2020, Winters Brothers affiliate Shamrock Rail acquired Brookhaven Rail LLC, which formerly operated the BRT. Winters Brothers recently dropped plans to build a waste-to-rail transfer facility on a property adjacent to the terminal.
Northpoint Development officials were intrigued by OmniTRAX’s business connections, says Brown.
“We came highly recommended,” he says.
And OmniTRAX leaders were interested in entering the New York market.
“This is a way to add a new dot to our map of operations,” says Brown.
But the BRT deal is more than just a shiny new location pushpin for OmniTRAX. Only 2% of freight is railed into the Long Island market, where the greater population totals about 8 million, says Brown. Inbound freight transported to the region annually is expected to total 98 million tons by 2030 and the population on the island alone is expected to reach 3.3 million (from today’s 2.8 million) by 2035.
Those are trends OmniTRAX expects to exploit. In addition, the BRT can provide more options to OmniTRAX customers, says Brown.
Moreover, there is a real estate component to the deal. About 90 acres adjacent to the BRT that’s controlled by Northpoint Development could be developed into two rail-served buildings, says Brown. OmniTRAX — which is owned by Denver-based real estate firm The Broe Group — could team up with Northpoint as development partners. Ultimately, NorthPoint seeks to develop the BRT into a rail-served industrial hub that can grow with the region.
In addition, OmniTRAX has a business relationship with other BRT customers, such as building materials producer Heidelberg Materials, says OmniTRAX Vice President of Corporate Development Scott Remington. The firm’s Winchester & Western Railroad serves a Heidelberg Materials facility in Millville, New Jersey.
OmniTRAX subsidiaries currently serve about 50 transload facilities that either are operated by OmniTRAX or a third party, says Remington.
OmniTRAX has submitted a filing to the Surface Transportation Board seeking approval to replace Brookhaven Rail as operator and lease the terminal’s track. OmniTRAX plans to establish a subsidiary named Sunrise Industrial Rail LLC to serve as the operator, says Remington. The launch of operations is targeted at around Sept. 1.
Northpoint Development recently rebranded the BRT as Long Island Reload. The rebranding is considered a “’refresh” of the business, especially with a new terminal operator, says Remington. Long Island Reload offers a number of services, including transloading, distribution, warehousing, logistics, freight forwarding, inventory management, rail-car tracking and custom handling.
In addition to the BRT agreement, OmniTRAX has swung a number of other deals of late. Over the past few months, the company has acquired the Santa Maria Valley Railroad in California; reached a railroad facilities operating agreement with Port Muskogee in Oklahoma; launched the Mount Vernon Railroad to serve the Ports of Indiana-Mount Vernon; and became the exclusive switching partner for Tata Chemical Soda Ash Partners’ mine in Green River, Wyoming.
OmniTRAX has landed more deals in the past two years than it had in the previous 10 years, says Brown. And there are a couple more in the hopper.
OmniTRAX is interested in teaming up with other companies that operate or function as a family since that’s long been the modus operandi for The Broe Group and OmniTRAX, says Brown.
“Our focus now is on partnerships,” he says.
