ASLRRA PERSPECTIVE, RAILWAY AGE MAY 2025 ISSUE: The term “doomscrolling,” which caught on during the pandemic, is now gaining newfound notoriety as our politics have become more divisive, government policies more unsettled, and headline news more stridently negative. Doomscrolling refers to spending too much time consuming negative news, locking you into a loop of feeling bad and then reading more news to confirm your anxiety.
Although I am an active social media user myself, I recently experienced the opposite of doomscrolling as I reviewed this year’s winners of the ASLRRA’s Business Development Awards, which were highlighted at our Annual Meeting in Denver April 6-8. The award recognizes three innovative and successful short line railroad marketing initiatives selected from a large group of short lines competing for the award.
As in past years, all the candidates were strong contenders and selecting the winners was a gratifyingly close call. For me, the business development efforts and benefits described by contestants is a reminder that headline news is not the only news that matters, and that whatever else is going on in the country, short lines continue to do what they do best. Growing rail volume one shipper and one carload at a time is the absolute essence of short line railroading. Here are the winners with some stories that matter.
Union County Industrial Railroad (UCIR) capitalized on its knowledge of local real estate to bring Country View Family Farms (CVFF) on board as a new customer in New Columbia, Pa. CVFF was looking to build an East Coast hog feed facility to host a new process for mass food production and was having difficulty finding a location that could accommodate its needs. UCIR was familiar with a parcel of land that was being farmed and not for sale.
The railroad, part of the North Shore Railroad Company, introduced the landowner to CVFF and together the parties developed a plan that provided space for the facility’s mill tower, grain silos and required rail infrastructure while allowing continued farming of the land in and around the facility. Funding this $55 million construction project included applying for Pennsylvania business and rail grants and the Department of Community and Economic Development’s Manufacturing Tax Credit Program. The new facility and rail connection has reduced CVFF costs and brought 50 new jobs to the area while helping maintain 321 existing jobs statewide, and supports 30 full-time truck drivers who deliver the feed to nearby farmers.
When grain processing company Bartlett needed a new plant and a reliable transportation partner in Southeastern Kansas, it turned to Watco subsidiary South Kansas & Oklahoma Railroad (SKOL). The railroad, Railway Age’s 2022 Regional of the Year, located a facility site off the railroad’s main line and worked alongside Bartlett during the design and construction of the necessary rail infrastructure. To handle the anticipated increase in traffic, SKOL had to make significant improvements to its existing rail and build a new interchange with Union Pacific that could accommodate 286,000-pound Gross Rail Load unit train traffic.
Funding for the Bartlett project and the associated infrastructure upgrades came from several sources. SKOL applied for and won two CRISI awards, a matching grant program that leverages significant additional capital investment from private and local government sources. The newly completed $375 million plant resulted in an 85% increase in Bartlett’s traffic in the fourth quarter of 2024 over the previous year, and SKOL carload traffic is expected to increase by 40%. The Bartlett facility has brought 70 new jobs to the area, and SKOL hired six new employees, with plans to hire an additional six to eight in 2025.
Coterra Energy needed a cost-effective way to move wastewater from its wellpads to a disposal site, but had always used truck rather than rail. To capture this business, Cathcart Rail’s Belpre Industrial Parkersburg Railroad (BIP) collaborated with Coterra Energy to develop a seamless, multi-railroad logistics solution for transporting non-hazardous wastewater from Eastern Pennsylvania to Southeastern Ohio.
In doing so, BIP had to take a concept and make it fully operational with project modeling and planning, assist with railcar leasing, negotiate rates with railroad partners, and find and develop transload facilities at both origin and destination. The project has resulted in cost savings and increased transportation options for Coterra, created six additional transloading jobs, will increase BIP traffic between 700 and 2,000 carloads annually, and take up to 10,000 trucks per year off local roads.
Each story is about significant capital investment in U.S. manufacturing facilities, bringing new good paying jobs to rural areas, reducing transportation costs for local shippers, and making the best use of government programs that promote economic growth. No doomscrolling here!
