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Norfolk Southern Railway is getting ready to take the wraps off the first of three new intermodal terminals on the Heartland Corridor. On Monday, the Class I will launch operations at Rickenbacker intermodal terminal in Columbus, Ohio's Rickenbacker Global Logistics Park.

The 250-acre facility will provide direct intermodal train service to and from Norfolk, Va., and the Chicago gateway for freight heading to/from the West Coast. The terminal features an automated gate system designed to expedite trucks into and out of the facility and speed equipment inspections.

The Heartland Corridor is a double-stack train route NS is creating through Virginia, West Virginia and Ohio. The corridor will shave about 200 miles off the Class I's existing intermodal route between the East Coast and Midwest. Currently, NS' double-stack trains head to the Midwest via Harrisburg, Pa., or Knoxville, Tenn.

The corridor is being funded through a public-private partnership between NS, the states of Virginia, Ohio and West Virginia, and federal government. The project calls for raising tunnel and bridge clearances to accommodate double-stack trains, and constructing two other intermodal terminals in Prichard, W.Va., and the Roanoke, Va., area.