Mobile, AL — Construction continues on the $60 million development of the Port of Mobile’s rail-served roll-on/roll-off vehicle processing facility. The project, announced in the Spring of last year, is slated for completion by the end of 2019.

The southeastern U.S. has become a hotbed of automotive assembly plants in recent years, and the new “Southeast Automotive Gateway” at Mobile promises a shorter overland haul for existing assembly plants, including Honda, Hyundai and Mercedes in Alabama, Toyota in Mississippi, Volkswagen in Tennessee, and KIA in Georgia. Once complete, the terminal is expected to handle up to 160,000 import and export vehicles annually.

The port’s existing rail infrastructure positions it particularly well to take advantage of automotive and heavy cargo import/export opportunities in the future. Indeed, five Class I railroads (BNSF, CN, CSX, Kansas City Southern and Norfolk Southern) directly connect to the former 57-acre bulk facility on which the new roll-on/roll-off terminal is being built.

Alabama Port Authority CEO James Lyons highlighted the port’s rail advantage at the announcement, writing in a press release that the agreement, “represents a key step in diversifying the Port Authority’s business while providing a strategic asset to regional automotive shippers.”

Greg Canfield, secretary of the Alabama Department of Commerce, echoed this statement at the signing of the agreement, commenting, “This new facility is an important piece of infrastructure that will help our automakers maintain their competitive edge as they continue to grow.”

The facility, which is being built and operated by a division of Argentinian logistics firm Terminal Zarate, will poise Mobile to be the entry point of imports from South America as well.  In addition to new cars and trucks, the facility will be able to handle new recreational vehicles, agricultural equipment, and movement of military vehicles.

Washington, D.C. — Some Earth Day trivia: What weighs 4,000 tons, carries the load of several hundred trucks, and is still the greenest way to move freight over land? A freight train, of course. Given rail’s scale of movement and the size of the U.S., it makes sense that trains would be the most efficient choice to haul freight from sea to shining sea.

But railroads don’t just rely on physics for efficiency – they’re constantly deploying tech that enables trains to move more for less (less fuel, less pollution, less time). Fuel management systems, advanced routing software, idling reduction tech, more efficient locomotives and various other enhancements have vastly improved efficiency. Case in point: while freight rail today moves nearly twice as much as it did in 1980, its fuel consumption is actually down.

Here are five stats that showcase rail’s environmental credentials:

  1. Trains are four times more efficient than trucks – meaning greenhouse gases fall by 75% when freight is moved by rail rather than trucks.

  1. Today’s freight trains can move one ton of goods over 480 miles on a single gallon of fuel, up from 396 miles in 2000.

  1. If just 10% of the freight moved by the largest trucks moved by rail instead, greenhouse gas emissions would fall by over 17 million tons. That’s the equivalent of removing 3.4 million cars from our highways or planting 262 million trees.

  1. While freight railroads haul one-third of U.S. exports and intercity freight, they account for just 2% of greenhouse gases from the transportation sector.

  1. Thanks to redesigned railcars, the average freight train in 2020 could haul about 31% more tonnage than it could in 2000 (3,817 tons in 2020 versus 2,923 in 2000).

Updated April 2021.

Oneonta, NY — New York Assemblyman Clifford Crouch recently highlighted freight rail’s spending and infrastructure in an op-ed for the Oneonta Daily Star, contrasting rail with the nation’s ailing roads and bridges. This private spending, he notes, has led to safety and efficiency advances that ultimately provide public benefits for consumers, drivers and taxpayers.

“In truth, freight rail is often an unsung transportation hero in our nation. Most of us don’t think of freight railroads unless something goes wrong, or we are inconvenienced by them. Fortunately for us, freight railroads are more efficient and safer than ever.

Due to massive private spending — an average of $25 billion per year over the last few years — the freight rail network is stronger than ever. The average rail shipper can move freight twice as far as it could in 1980 for roughly the same price and rail’s inherent efficiency over long distances coupled with key technological investments means that trains can now move one ton of freight nearly 500 miles on a single gallon of diesel, four times as fuel efficient as moving freight on the highway. More than that, recent years have been the safest on record for railroads.

That means lower prices, less highway congestion, less air pollution and less need for taxpayer-funded highways and other infrastructure.”

Read the Full Story.

Birmingham, AL — Policymakers should look to freight rail’s “user-pays” example when considering highway infrastructure policy, argues Alabama State Director Christy Sammon in a recent op-ed for the Birmingham Business Journal.

“But while many of our highways, waterways, runways and other publicly funded infrastructure have been starved for cash, one mode — freight rail — has been doubling down on its private spending to steadily connect businesses and meet increasing demand. Powering investments in track, equipment and technology, rail’s spending ($25 billion annually in recent years) helps shippers move more, move it more efficiently and move it at lower cost.”

On top of rail’s economic impact, Sammon notes that those who supply railroads are also a boon to the state’s economy.

“Among the many sectors of the economy supported by private freight railroads is the rail supply industry, as evidenced by a 2018 study that showed rail suppliers contributed $1.6 billion to the Alabama economy, employed over17,000 Alabamians and paid out over $900 million in compensation.”

Read the Full Story.

Jacksonville, FL — “You’re kind of at the heart of the intermodal network,” said Kevin Thorpe, chief economist for global commercial real estate company Cushman & Wakefield, describing Jacksonville at an event last week.

Referring to the city’s robust rail and port connections, Thorpe echoed a common sentiment felt by economic development professionals throughout the city and region: the Jacksonville industrial market is “as close to a can’t miss [as] there is” right now.

On top of this momentum, city officials announced a $238 million deal in early March to expand a container facility at the Port of Jacksonville — a move prioritized with the recent expansion of the Panama Canal. The Jacksonville Port Authority (Jaxport) will partner with Seattle-based SSA Marine, one of the largest port operators in the world, to both expand its terminal on Blount Island and continue deepening efforts for an 11-mile stretch of channel. As part of the expansion, SSA Marine will also construct three new, 100-gauge cranes to handle added volume.

This new expansion will likely increase volume considerably at Jaxport, which is already the third-largest seaport in Florida and eighth-largest on the East Coast. Rail is a critical partner in alleviating congestion, taking about 4.8 million trucks off of Florida roads annually.

Jacksonville-based CSX expects an uptick in its rail freight volume as well, with rail lines positioned to serve Deep South, mid-South, and Midwest customers from the intermodal facility at Jaxport. Norfolk Southern and Florida East Coast Railway also serve the port. The overall port expansion, worth over $400 million, is well ahead of schedule and is projected to be fully implemented over 25 years.

Since the expansion of the Panama Canal, East Coast ports like Savannah and Charleston have been steadily expanding and deepening, adding capacity to receive big ships that previously landed on the West coast but whose freight was ultimately destined for the highly-populated East.

“We are thrilled to partner with a major international terminal operator that is as dedicated as we are to contributing to the economic vitality of Northeast Florida,” said Jaxport CEO Eric Green after the announcement of the expansion deal.

Together with trucks and ships, America’s freight railroads are part of an interconnected intermodal network that delivers 54 tons of goods for every American annually.

Washington, DC — March came in like a lion and went out like one, too, for the GoRail team. Our busy staff conducted over 225 meetings with community leaders across 11 states in the month of March, spreading the pro-rail message and rallying constituents to make sure their U.S. senators and representatives understand the importance of freight rail to their states and districts.

The GoRail team traveled to 11 states in March 2019, holding over 225 meetings with community leaders and reaching hundreds more via a dozen targeted large-group presentations.

Typical meetings with county commissioners, chambers of commerce, mayors, or other leaders included a localized presentation demonstrating how a freight rail industry able to spend and invest in the rail network at a high level drives local economies, supports jobs and makes a safe rail network even safer, more productive and more efficient.

Given the common misimpression that railroads are taxpayer funded, which still exists even in the halls of Congress, these local education meetings are vital. When community leaders learn that railroads churn an average of $25 billion of their own money back into the rail network each year, they take notice.

Averaging 25 meetings per week-long “site visit” to a state, GoRail’s field staff endeavor to connect with influential constituents of key U.S. House and Senate committee members, laying the foundation for delivering a positive freight rail message to Congress.

As valuable as these one-on-one meetings are in terms of educating local leaders about freight rail technological innovation, for example, the GoRail team also arranges to speak in front of larger audiences to spread the positive message about rail. March presentations included the Pacific Northwest Association of Rail Shippers, the Contra Costa County (CA) Transportation Authority, the New England Rail Tech Conference, Michigan Senate Transportation & Infrastructure Committee, and the California Association for Local Economic Development.

GoRail also joined industry representatives for five “statehouse freight rail days” in March, bringing the number of such outreach events to 12 so far in 2019. At March events in California, Michigan, Mississippi, New York, and North Carolina, GoRail helped drive ongoing efforts to educate state legislators about the ways balanced regulation fuels private sector investment in the rail network, and how this benefits local communities.

California State Director Nate Kaplan speaks March 8 in San Ramon, Calif., at the fifth annual Redefining Mobility Summit, presented by the Contra Costa Transportation Authority and GoMentum Station, a testing ground for connected and autonomous vehicles. Nate joined a panel on freight movement and highlighted the technological and environmental benefits of freight rail.

Another tool at our team’s disposal for events is a rail technology virtual reality experience that lets the viewer get up-close and personal to the technologies being deployed along the rail network. Dozens of legislators and local officials have already had the chance to fly along the side of a train to see how smart sensors, drones, fuel optimizers, positive train control systems and more work together to make rail safer and more efficient.

Look for a similarly aggressive pace in the months ahead as GoRail continues the work of spreading the word about the public benefits of a strong and thriving freight rail industry.

Here, event attendees get to experience rail tech via virtual reality.