NS on Dec. 9 reported that direct rail service and its site development expertise made Huntsville the “top contender” for Eli Lilly’s synthetic medicine active pharmaceutical ingredient facility, which will produce small molecule synthetic and peptide medicines. The multi-building campus will span more than one million square feet, supporting manufacturing, logistics, packaging, lab, and utilities operations, and will be near the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology, which is described as an “established bioscience campus that supports workforce training and research.” Construction is slated to begin next year, generating 3,000 jobs, and wrap up in 2032. Some 450 permanent jobs will be created at the facility, according to Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly, a pharmaceutical manufacturing company with operations in more than 110 countries.
“Huntsville’s track record of science and innovation makes Alabama an ideal location for Lilly to expand domestic manufacturing capacity for next-generation medicines,” said Eli Lilly Chair and CEO David A. Ricks, who noted that the company’s investment “continues the onshoring of active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) production, strengthening supply chain resilience and reliable access to medicines for patients in the U.S.”
“We’re honored to support Eli Lilly’s vision for next-generation medicine manufacturing in Huntsville,” NS Group Vice President of Industrial Development Craig Hudson said. “We invested in a dedicated rail spur to help deliver critical raw materials and finished products, strengthening supply chain resilience and expanding access to life-changing medicines. This project marks a milestone for rail in the biotechnology space, and we’re proud to be part of it.”
Meanwhile, Laredo Gateway Industrial Railway, LLC (LGIR), a non-carrier subsidiary of Kraus Development, on Dec. 8 petitioned the STB for an exemption from the prior approval requirements of 49 U.S.C. §10901 to construct an approximately 2.6-mile (13,707-foot) common carrier rail line in Webb County, Tex. It would extend from UP’s main line, which runs between San Antonio and Laredo, and terminate within the new Gateway Industrial Park (see map above). LGIR told the Board that it has entered into an agreement with Iron Horse Resources, Inc. to operate the proposed line, which will be supported by sidings and will connect with customers via private industrial tracks as customers locate to the park. LGIR forecasts customer demand to result in train service once per day, with approximately 4,000-6,750 railcars per year.
Kraus Development is developing the park over 3,300 acres of its land near Laredo, where it intends to offer warehousing to serve the logistics industry, “attracting commodities via truck” and “leveraging its location near the U.S. border with Mexico,” LGIR said. The new line would allow commodities to be transloaded between truck and rail and then interchanged with UP.
“The Laredo Port-of-Entry has the largest freight volume of the U.S./Mexico ports of entry,” LGIR told the STB. “Further, Laredo is the fastest growing in terms of truck and rail traffic with more than half of the Laredo truck traffic utilizing local warehouses to transload commodities from truck to truck to then transport commodities between Mexico and the U.S. This transloading activity creates an opportunity for some commodities to be transloaded and transported via rail in place of trucks.
“LGIR sees a need for the proposed line because a large amount of freight at the Laredo Port-of-Entry is transported via truck, yet the number of rail-served industrial facilities in Laredo is in decline. At one time, the Laredo area boasted 52 rail-served facilities. At present, only 15 remain. Of these, only one dedicated rail/truck transload exists, and it is located within the Union Pacific’s Laredo yard. From LGIR’s perspective, neither UP nor CPKC [Canadian Pacific Kansas City] are primarily focused on serving local traffic because both are primarily focused on their own respective cross-border rail traffic originating or terminating on rail beyond Laredo. For all these reasons, LGIR sees a gap in the marketplace for local rail freight accessibility and local rail/truck transloading capacity that will produce manifest carloads of rail traffic.” LGIR noted that UP has recognized its project as one of 42 UP systemwide Focus Sites.
