Bethlehem Steel Railroad Wins Harriman Gold Award as Safest Short-Line Railroad in America

Bethlehem Steel Corporation
For Immediate Release

WASHINGTON, D.C., May 8, 2001 - Bethlehem Steel Corporation's Patapsco & Back Rivers Railroad (P&BR) was honored here last Wednesday by the E. H. Harriman Memorial Awards Institute with a Gold Medal Award for the railroad's exceptional safety performance in serving, primarily, the steelmaker's Sparrows Point, Md., Division.

This year's award marked the fourth consecutive time that the P&BR was honored by the Harriman Institute for its superb safety record and the first time that the railroad received the organization's top prize. In 1998 and 2000, the P&BR received the Harriman Bronze Medal Award and in 1999 it won the Silver Medal Award.

Each year the Institute presents awards for safety based on the absence of accidents and a low incidence of injuries. Winning of the Gold Medal Award this year signifies that the P&BR was the safest short-line railroad in the nation in 2000. It is also the 20th time a Bethlehem Steel subsidiary railroad has won a Harriman Award in the past 33 years.

The P&BR, one of nine subsidiary railroads owned by Bethlehem Steel, handles a diverse range of commodities, such as finished iron and steel products, coal, coke, oil, plywood and other materials. The P&BR serves the Port of Sparrows Point and offers rail-to-truck transload facilities for use by customers of two Class I railroads -- Norfolk Southern and CSX Transportation. In addition, the P&BR prepares and delivers trains to Bay View Yard in Baltimore.

"Winning the Harriman Gold Medal Award is a tremendous honor and is a product of our continued commitment to the safety process. The participation by our employees in our safety program has been the primary factor in keeping each of us safe throughout the workday," said Michael J. King, superintendent of the P&BR, who accepted the award with J. Michael Zaia, president of Bethlehem Steel's subsidiary railroads.

The Harriman Awards were established in 1913 by Mary Harriman in memory of her husband, Edward Henry Harriman, a railroad financier and administrator who reorganized and consolidated railroads in the western United States. He is best remembered for his presidency of Union Pacific Railroad, which he developed into one of the nation's largest transportation companies.