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Norfolk Southern Corp. June 27 purchased 21.9 miles of private rail lines and spurs in southwest Indiana from Peabody Coal Co. and Yankeetown Dock Corp. to enhance its coal network, and better serve Peabody Coal and Alcoa Inc. Terms weren't disclosed.


The Peabody Coal line runs between a point near the coal company's idled Lynnville mine (where it connects to RailAmerica Inc.'s Indiana Southern Railroad Inc.) south across NS' east-west line near Boonville, and south to Warrick; the Yankeetown Dock Warrick line serves the dock, which Peabody Coal purchased last year, and Alcoa's manufacturing complex.


Per a Yankeetown Dock agreement and operating rights granted by Interstate Commerce Commission, NS since 1956 has carried Alcoa's merchandise traffic; because of the transaction, NS would move some — and eventually all — of Alcoa's coal, as well as Yankeetown Dock's coal. (Indiana Southern for a specified time period would have limited local trackage rights to carry coal from a mine on its line to Alcoa and the dock.)


The purchase also enables NS to serve Peabody Coal's Lynnville mine and adjacent properties — should they reopen — through lead-track operations.


"Opportunities to add coal reserves to our lines and to serve large coal-powered plants, manufacturing facilities and existing transfer facilities are rare," said John Fox Jr., NS senior vice president coal services, in a prepared statement. "By adding these lines to our system — rather than continuing to operate over them via operating or trackage rights agreements, or industrial lead track movements — we help ensure that we can provide quality service and open new markets to local shippers and receivers."