Norfolk Southern reveals plans for new rail corridor

Norfolk Southern reveals plans for new rail corridor Norfolk Southern Corp. announced plans Wednesday to develop a $2 billion-plus rail corridor stretching from sites near both Memphis and New Orleans to New Jersey.
   The railroad said that the so-called “Crescent Corridor” project would roughly follow the Interstate 81 corridor as well parts of I-20, I-40, I-75 and I-85, and would speed cargo shipments and reduce highway congestion by diverting truck traffic.
   The project would expand and improve rail lines in various locations using improvements such as new track, rail sidings and signal improvements to remove bottlenecks, said Mike McClellan, vice president of intermodal and automotive marketing for Norfolk Southern.
   McClellan, who described the plan in a presentation to investors in New York, said it was even more ambitious than the Heartland Corridor the railroad is building from Norfolk into the Midwest, or the Meridian Speedway, its joint venture with Kansas City Southern between Atlanta and Texas.
   Spokesman Rudy Husband said: “the concept is not a new one,” and that the company has been talking about the need for improvements along the corridor for about a decade to improve the flow of traffic between the Southeast and Northeast. But he said the company wanted to “raise awareness” of the need to improve capacity along the corridor, he said.
   The service could be used for both domestic and international cargo.
   The company said it estimates there are 1 million divertible truckloads in the corridor.
   McClellan said the project would require public financing to be economically viable, but he said the public would reap benefits in terms of reduced road congestion and lower pollution, safety improvement, reduced road maintenance expenses, and economic development. Virginia has committed $40 million to the project already, he added.
   He said public dollars are footing about two-thirds of the bill to build the Heartland Corridor.
   Don Seale, an executive vice president, said there was a “compelling case” for the new project, noting that just widening the I-81 corridor in Virginia alone would cost $14 billion.
   McClellan said motor carriers, led by J.B. Hunt and other intermodal companies, had shared large amounts of data with the railroad to prepare its planning for the Crescent Corridor, which he said reflected their interest in the project.
   The goal, he added, is to proved services that are competitive with single driver truck services. For example, the railroad expected to offer transit times of 30 hours between Knoxville and New Jersey, or Memphis and Harrisburg, and 43 hours between Memphis and Philadelphia. These are comparable to what the company offers today on high volume, high capacity services between Chicago and Harrisburg, for example.
   The company plans to start 28 new trains if the corridor is developed, and the service could be used by motor carriers, intermodal marketing companies and private fleets, as well as Norfolk Southern’s own intermodal units.
   The company also plans to expand terminals in Northern New Jersey, Philadelphia, Allentown and Harrisburg, Pa., as well as other locations.
   Norfolk Southern and CSX both serve steamship lines calling marine terminals in New Jersey and New York. Today, most of those boxes move to either the Midwest or Canada.
   If financing works out, Norfolk Southern said construction on the project would begin in 2008. The first phase would be completed by 2009, with the entire project being finished by 2013.