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February 2015
— by Jeff Stagl, Managing Editor
Industrial development is one arrow in Class Is' business-generation quiver. Attracting new facilities and prompting plant additions along their lines help increase traffic and revenue.
For example, CSX Corp. last year worked with customers on 107 projects worth more than $3.5 billion. The Class I expects the projects to generate 161,000 carloads of new traffic annually.
To help prompt industrial development efforts, the Class Is devote portions of their corporate websites to the services and information they provide in that regard. But CSX recently took its web resources a step further by launching csxindustrialdevelopment.com, a separate online platform.
Unveiled in late 2014, the site allows potential and current customers to search for information by specific facility needs, and enables users to connect with CSX's Select Site program and proprietary site design services. The idea: to help customers more easily access the resources they need to locate or expand facilities on the Class I's network.
The site features online search functionality to customize content to a project's needs. In addition, a "site location" feature is designed to help a user define criteria for the desired real estate, narrow a search, zero in on specific sites, then work with CSX's Industrial Development Department on the operating and engineering review process.
Other features include step-by-step guidance for site design, a review of CSX's network, and links to several resources, such as a freight-rail handbook and specifications for private sidetracks.
There are reams of information associated with industrial development projects and the site aims to make it easier for customers or community representatives to find the resources they need, perhaps in only two or three mouse clicks, says Clark Robertson, CSX's assistant vice president of regional development, who led the site's launch.
"They can use this site instead of us sending them 10 pounds of materials," he says. "They get a 40,000-foot flyover of the process, and can dive into the information that applies to them."
The information will help customers eliminate potential project sites and identify prime sites as fast as possible, says Robertson.
CSX began to develop the website four years ago. The effort to establish the online platform gained traction after the CSX Select Site program was launched at 2011's end, says Robertson.
The program identifies locations for projects along CSX's 23-state network that can progress quickly because typical land-use issues are addressed and sites are deemed ready for development. The Select Site program certifies sites that meet strict criteria, including infrastructure and utility availability, environmental reviews, appropriate zoning, air quality permitting, rail serviceability and proximity to interstates.
Currently, prime sites in 14 industrial parks in nine states are certified by the program. About five certified sites are added each year, says Robertson.
The program/website combo figures to foster more projects — and more traffic — for CSX. For now, the Industrial Development Department is nurturing the site while it's in the infant stages.
"We are learning as we go," says Robertson.
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