Houston Belt and Terminal Railway Company

Houston Belt and Terminal Railway
Overview
Parent companyUnion Pacific and BNSF Railway
Headquarters501 Crawford Street, Room 100, Houston, TX 77002-2113
Dates of operation1905 (1905)
Technical
Track gauge1,435 mm (4 ft 8+12 in)

Houston Belt & Terminal Railway Company is a terminal and switching railroad and owner of industrial property in Houston, Texas, United States that also formerly operated Houston's Union Station.[1][2][3] It was incorporated on August 31, 1905[4] and was initially owned by four line-haul railway companies that it connected with, Trinity and Brazos Valley Railway Company, the Beaumont, Sour Lake and Western Railway Company, the St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico Railway Company and the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway Company.[1] As a result of mergers and consolidations in the railway industry, the company's shareholders changed. As of 2021, BNSF Railway owned 50% of the company's shares.[5] As of 2023, the company is still covered by the Railroad Retirement Act.[6]

The company's archives from 1905 to 1936 are held by History Colorado.[7]

A dispute among railways involving the HB&T was decided by the United States Supreme Court.[8] [9]

References

  1. ^ a b "TSHA | Houston Belt and Terminal Railway".
  2. ^ Farbar, Jerome Hammond (1913). Houston: Where Seventeen Railroads Meet the Sea. H. H. Tammen Company. Retrieved April 28, 2023.
  3. ^ "RAIL RELIEF FOR HOUSTON; Examiners for I.C.C. Approve Plan for Revised Terminal". The New York Times. January 7, 1950.
  4. ^ "Houston Belt & Terminal Railway Company". Open Corporates. Retrieved April 28, 2023.
  5. ^ "BNSF Railway Company Leased Lines and Wholly-Owned Subsidiaries Class 1 Railroad Annual Report To the Surface Transportation Board For the Year Ending December 31, 2021. 310. Investments and Advances Affiliated Companies" (PDF). BNSF Railway. Retrieved April 28, 2023.
  6. ^ "Employers Covered Under the Railroad Retirement Act" (PDF). Railroad Retirement Board. February 7, 2023. p. 20.
  7. ^ "Houston Belt and Terminal Railway Company Collection, 1905-1936".
  8. ^ "HOUSTON BELT & TERMINAL RAILWAY COMPANY, Missouri Pacific Railroad Company, et al., appellants, v. UNITED STATES of America, Interstate Commerce Commission, and Texas & New Orleans Railroad Company".
  9. ^ "Houston Belt Terminal Railway Co. V. United States, 153 F. Supp. 3 | Casetext Search + Citator".