Rail terminal logs successful first year with ethanol volume, Tampa port says

The Tampa Gateway Rail terminal at the Port of Tampa handled 3,897,189 barrels of ethanol — transported in 5,705 rail cars — in its first year of operation, the Tampa Port Authority (TPA) announced yesterday.

Operated by CSX Corp. subsidiary TRANSFLO, the terminal received its first train in November 2012 and business since has been robust, TPA officials said in a press release. The facility was built by a collaborative effort between CSX, the TPA and Kinder Morgan Energy Partners L.P.

Used to bring fuel-grade ethanol into the Tampa market more efficiently and safely, the terminal is Florida's first on-dock unit-train facility with intermodal container and general cargo capability, TPA officials said.

The authority built new track and support infrastructure to accommodate 96-car unit train deliveries and the offloading of multi-product unit trains at the port's Hooker's Point. Kinder Morgan constructed pipelines to transport the ethanol from the rail offloading facilities to its Tampa terminal, where it's distributed to other Tampa terminals for blending or transported to Orlando for gasoline blending.

The Tampa Gateway Rail terminal is meeting the needs of central Florida's biofuels demand, said TPA President and Chief Executive Officer Paul Anderson, adding that the facility enables the port to transport products more efficiently and competitively.