BUSINESS AND CUSTOMERS:

Unless the context otherwise requires, when used in these consolidated financial statements, the terms "Genesee & Wyoming," "G&W" and the "Company" refer to Genesee & Wyoming Inc. and its subsidiaries.

The Company owns or leases 122 freight railroads worldwide that are organized in nine operating regions with approximately 8,000 employees and 3,000 customers. The financial results of our nine operating regions are reported in the following three distinct segments:


•	The Company's seven North American regions serve 41 U.S. states and four Canadian provinces and include 115 short line and regional freight railroads with more than 13,000 track miles.


•	The Company's Australian Region serves New South Wales, the Northern Territory and South Australia and operates the 1,400-mile Tarcoola-to-Darwin rail line. As of December 1, 2016, G&W's Australia Region is 51.1% owned by us and 48.9% owned by a consortium of funds and clients managed by Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets (MIRA).


•	The Company's U.K./European Region includes the United Kingdom's (U.K.) largest rail maritime intermodal operator and second-largest freight rail provider, as well as regional rail services in Continental Europe.

The Company's subsidiaries and joint ventures also provide rail service at more than 40 major ports, rail-ferry service between the U.S. Southeast and Mexico, transload services, contract coal loading, and industrial railcar switching and repair. See Note 3, Changes in Operations, for descriptions of the Company's changes in operations in recent years.

During the third quarter of 2017, the Company's Mountain West Region railroads were consolidated into its Central and Pacific regions, and the Pacific Region was renamed the Western Region. The consolidation reduced the Company's number of operating regions from ten to nine.

The Company's railroads transport a wide variety of commodities. Revenues from the Company's 10 largest customers accounted for approximately 24%, 22% and 22% of the Company's operating revenues in 2017, 2016 and 2015, respectively.

When comparing the Company's results of operations from one reporting period to another, it is important to consider that the Company has historically experienced fluctuations in revenues and expenses due to acquisitions, changing economic conditions, commodity prices, competitive forces, changes in foreign currency exchange rates, rail network congestion, one-time freight moves, fuel price fluctuations, customer plant expansions and shut-downs, sales of property and equipment, derailments and weather-related conditions, such as hurricanes, cyclones, tornadoes, high winds, droughts, heavy snowfall, unseasonably hot or cold weather, freezing and flooding, among other factors. In periods when these events occur, the Company's results of operations are not easily comparable from one period to another. Finally, certain of the Company's railroads have commodity shipments that are sensitive to general economic conditions, global commodity prices and foreign exchange rates, such as steel products, iron ore, paper products, lumber and forest products and agricultural products, as well as product specific market conditions, such as the availability of lower priced alternative sources of power generation (coal) and energy commodity price differentials (crude oil and natural gas liquids) or congestion at ports (intermodal). Other shipments are relatively less affected by economic conditions and are more closely affected by other factors, such as winter weather (salt) and seasonal rainfall (agricultural products). As a result of these and other factors, the Company's results of operations in any reporting period may not be directly comparable to the Company's results of operations in other reporting periods.