BNSF, NS, UP upping bets on intermodal

BNSF, Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific have spent or are spending more than $600 million in Kansas, Pennsylvania and Illinois to increase their intermodal business.

BNSF is constructing a $200 million intermodal terminal southwest of Kansas City in Edgerton, Kan., reports journalstar.com. The state is contributing $35 million toward the project, which is to be repaid by a utilities sales tax.

Norfolk Southern will hold a groundbreaking Oct. 19 on a 220-acre, $94 million intermodal terminal near Greencastle, Pa., scheduled to be completed in 2012, reports progressiverailroading.com, which says the new terminal is part of the NS Crescent Corridor – a 2,500-mile intermodal double-stack route linking New Jersey and Louisiana.

Union Pacific, meanwhile, has opened a $370 million intermodal terminal at Joliet, Ill., reports journalstar.com. UP said the new terminal has the capacity to handle some 500,000 highway-to-rail containers and trailers, and is second in size to UP’s Long Beach, Calif., intermodal terminal that has a capacity of some 700,000 container and trailer loadings annually.

Railwayage.com reports that among the Joliet terminal’s features are four 8,000-foot tracks with capacity to handle the loading or unloading of 104 double-stack cars, six 8,000-foot tracks to sort railcars by destination, and six storage tracks.