Indiana Rail Road accelerates terminal project to keep pace with intermodal growth
1/23/2023
By Jeff Stagl, Managing Editor
A major intermodal expansion project that the Indiana Rail Road Co. (INRD) had expected to complete in phases from 2021 to 2023 instead was mostly accomplished in 2022.
The regional accelerated the $6.5 million project at its Senate Avenue Terminal in Indianapolis because intermodal business is growing rapidly and the number of containers flowing through the facility have outgrown the available space, says INRD President and CEO Dewayne Swindall.
“There aren’t that many regionals that do intermodal. Their numbers are dwindling,” he says. “To grow our intermodal business, we needed to do an addition and rehab at the terminal more quickly.”
INRD and its partner CN opened the Senate Avenue Terminal in 2013 to offer an international container service connecting Indianapolis to points in Asia and Europe. The service bypasses Chicago to avoid terminal congestion and costly drayage to or from facilities in central Indiana and the Ohio Valley. The Asia service accesses ports in Prince Rupert and Vancouver, Bristish Columbia, that are 2.5 days closer in transit time to key Asian ports compared with transit times to major southern California ports.
Over the past decade, container volume at the Senate Avenue Terminal has shot up from 1,450 in the facility’s first year to more than 40,000, says Swindall.
Since the terminal opened in 2013, the number of containers INRD and CN have transported annually has shot up from about 1,000 to 40,000. Indiana Rail Road Co. Several years ago, INRD acquired an additional 14.5 acres adjacent to the terminal to more than double the container yard’s footprint, including the creation of more container parking space and an onsite chassis depot.
Launched in early 2022 and largely completed in December, the expansion project involved the construction of inbound and outbound traffic lanes with an innovative kiosk gate system for expedited handling, two new loading pad tracks, high-security fencing and new lighting. INRD paid for the entire project through its capital expenditures program, says Swindall.
Now, the terminal features an east pad in addition to the existing west pad, 2,000 more feet of track, and new in and out gates. Some final touch-up work is being completed at the gates.
With the expansion mostly in the rearview mirror, the terminal is ready to handle a lot more than just 40,000 to 45,000 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) annually, says Swindall.
“This project has doubled that capacity to 80,000 TEUs,” he says.
INRD spent $6.5 million of its own capital on the terminal project. The regional also moves coal, grains, paper, food products, lumber, steel, plastics, sugar and road salt. Indiana Rail Road Co. A few more aspects of the overall project still are in the offing. In the second quarter, the regional expects to open an empty container storage yard that can store up to 1,000 containers.
“It’s a huge value-add service since ocean carriers won’t need to use a third party to store their containers,” says Swindall. “It adds a revenue stream for us and helps from an efficiency standpoint.”
Also in Q2, INRD plans to open a chassis storage yard that can store 250 to 300 chassis.
Sometime soon, INRD plans to start different lanes of traffic that will double intermodal business, Swindall says, adding that he can’t comment further until sometime in February.
There’s something else that’s coming soon: An intermodal agreement with an eastern carrier in addition to the ongoing partnership with CN, which serves as INRD’s western carrier.
“We want to become a full-service terminal for customers, both existing and new customers,” Swindall says.
The Senate Avenue Terminal project proves the regional is strongly committed to growing intermodal business, he believes.
“This is a great success story in the short-line world. It will benefit INRD for years to come,” says Swindall.
