CLR (formerly County Line Rail) on Nov. 10 launched its new website (www.clrail.com) “to support the company’s national expansion strategy and showcase its strategic rail infrastructure capabilities.” CLR also announced the appointment of Bryan Boaz as Chief Commercial Officer (CCO).
The digital platform, the company, which provides comprehensive rail solutions including switching, storage, transloading, railcar maintenance and cleaning, unit train services, and industrial real estate development, says, “reflects CLR’s evolution from regional Gulf Coast operator to national rail infrastructure provider.”
“We’ve built something exceptional in Texas—operational excellence, strategic infrastructure advantages, and genuine partnerships with both Class I railroads and industrial customers,” said CLR CEO Ben Brosseau. “As we expand our footprint nationally, we need a digital presence that reflects the scope and quality of what we’ve built on the ground.”
The website highlights CLR’s competitive advantages including triple Class I access at its Sabine River & Northern Railroad (SRN) facility (the only such location in the Golden Triangle region), 24-hour switching guarantee versus industry standard 48-72 hours, direct plant connectivity to local manufacturing site, multiple transloading services, and 2,300+ railcar storage spots across three Texas facilities.
“The rail industry is evolving rapidly as Class I carriers focus on improving system velocity, which creates tremendous opportunity for strategic infrastructure partners like CLR,” said CCO Bryan Boaz. “We’re developing facilities along high-traffic mainline corridors that allow railroads to execute ‘hook and haul’ operations more efficiently—we handle the switching and blocking; they handle the line haul.”
Boaz brings more than two decades of railroad operations and commercial leadership experience, “positioning CLR to execute its national expansion strategy as a strategic infrastructure partner for North America’s evolving rail network,” the company said.
“Bryan is one of those rare industry leaders who has excelled on both sides of the business—railroad operations and shipper commercial strategy,” said Ben Brosseau. “He started as a conductor at Kansas City Southern (KCS) and went on to lead ExxonMobil’s North American rail program through some of the most challenging periods in recent history. That combination of ground-level railroad knowledge and strategic commercial execution is exactly what we need as we scale CLR into a national platform.”
Most recently, Boaz led Gulf Coast Rail Operations for ExxonMobil’s Supply Chain organization, managing key Canadian assets and maintaining oversight of more than 100 agreements for railcar switching, storage, and transloading across North America. He successfully navigated multiple hurricanes, mainline outages, labor shortages, and the COVID-19 pandemic by proactively rerouting shipments—enabling ExxonMobil to maintain supply continuity while competitors faced significant service challenges.
Boaz’s railroad foundation was built at KCS (now CPKC), where he started as a conductor and advanced through operational leadership roles including Trainmaster. In this role, he transformed the railroad’s poorest performing subdivision—the eastern half of the Meridian Speedway, a critical East-West corridor connecting Los Angeles to Atlanta—into the safest, most on-time, and overall best performing subdivision in just six months. He later served as Director of International Business Development, playing a key role in the Rosenberg Subdivision rebuild and leading major commercial initiatives across Mexico with KCSM. He also held logistics and commercial roles for Enbridge Energy and two of their trading companies, overseeing rail logistics and then more than 20 million barrels of merchant tank storage and blending operations.
A multi-generational railroader, Boaz currently serves on the U.S. Surface Transportation Board’s (STB) Rail Energy Transportation Advisory Committee (RETAC) and previously chaired the American Petroleum Institute’s Rail Subcommittee.
“We’ve already rebranded to CLR—’Built for What’s Next’—to reflect our national ambitions. We’re expanding east of the Mississippi River and developing operational storage and blocking yards in strategic locations with multiple Class I service options. Three to five years from now, I see CLR as a recognized infrastructure provider that adds measurable value to North America’s rail network,” said Boaz.
