Genesee & Wyoming, BNSF say customers spent billions to be near rail

Genesee & Wyoming: $1.5 billion in investments across multiple commodities

Customers of short line operator Genesee & Wyoming invested $1.5 billion last year in 69 projects that will utilize proximity to G&W’s network.

Investments presented all major commodity groups, with chemicals and plastics, minerals and stone, and agricultural products leading the investments.

“Based on last year’s customer investments, G&W’s freight transportation services continue to be critical to companies’ logistics strategies and the greater supply chain,” said G&W Chief Commercial Officer Mike Peters. G&W operates 103 U.S. freight railroads.

“Going forward, we expect companies to increasingly look to rail transportation to meet Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) targets, and we are prepared to assist them in finding sites and services that help reach those goals,” Peters said in a Wednesday release.

G&W says it has a database of more than 600 potential industrial complexes, parks and other properties across its U.S. footprint, as well as a catalog of more than 200 transload locations.

Among the dozens of projects are the following:

A new steel customer facility in Delta, Ohio, is being built on the Indiana & Ohio Railway. The facility will receive inbound coils to make pipe. This is the fourth steel customer to expand business on this line since 2015, G&W said, creating a “steel corridor” along the railway.
A biodegradable plastics facility in Bainbridge, Georgia, that will be served by the Georgia Southwestern Railroad.
A plant in Williams, California, will produce renewable carbon pellets. The plant will be served by the California Northern Railroad.
New wind turbine transload sites have been established in Havana, Illinois, and Remington, Indiana. These sites will be served by the Toledo, Peoria & Western Railway and the Illinois & Midland Railroad.
A transload site in Visalia, California, along the San Joaquin Valley Railroad for biodiesel and renewable diesel, and a transload site for feldspar minerals in Oral, South Dakota, along the Rapid City, Pierre & Eastern Railroad.

BNSF: Customers invested $1.5 billion in projects in 2021

Earlier this month, BNSF said its customers invested $1.5 billion in projects along BNSF’s network in 2021. These projects included consumer, agricultural and industrial projects among the “wide variety of commodities” pursuing industrial development.

Last year “marked the 11th consecutive year that BNSF customers and local economic development organizations have invested more than $1 billion in a calendar year for new or expanded facilities,” BNSF said.

Among the larger investments were the following:

The Gatorade Company Inc. made a “significant investment” and co-located a facility at BNSF’s Logistics Park Kansas City serving warehouse and distribution.
Mark Anthony Brewing in Glendale, Arizona, invested $450 million for a facility that can receive glucose and alcohol to produce White Claw Hard Seltzer.
Northern Metal Recycling invested $75 million for a new facility at the Becker Industrial Park in Becker, Minnesota, to handle manifest and unit train shipments of scrap metals.

“The success of BNSF’s rail development program is a result of our employees working with our customers to build unique supply chain solutions that fit their distinctive needs,” said Chris Danos, assistant vice president of economic development. “Flexibility is the key to helping our customers maximize their investments, saving them development costs and expediting their speed to market.”

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