Shareholder value creation on deregulated transportation sector: Focus on North American railway freight

•Transportation sector deregulation started in the late 1970s from USA.•In general North American railway freight has provided extremely good yields.•Other companies, like Ryanair and Copenhagen airports, have similar performance.•In analyzed companies it is vital to follow invest dividends back strategy.•Research develops simulation model to analyze long-term investment success. In transportation sector implemented deregulation processes as well as increased free competition in the global scale have been key change drivers in recent decades. This research work analyzes in retrospective shareholder value creation in North American railway freight and peer group of four transportation companies from Europe and one from Asia. Research shows that North American, and particularly Canadian, railway freight companies own exceptional ability to increase shareholder value over time. From peer group companies Ryanair and Copenhagen airports have shown similar performance. In comparison all analyzed companies beat Dow Jones index as its starting year is 2000. However, index performs better, if it is enlarged to take into account decades long time period. As a caveat for analyzed well performing companies are occasionally occurred economic crisis times, which challenge ownership advances as declines have been rapid and significant.