[Johnny Ryall]

Norfolk Southern gets $105M TIGER grant for Crescent Corridor
Memphis Business Journal

The U.S. Department of Transportation awarded a $105 million Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery grant to Norfolk Southern Corp.’s Crescent Corridor Intermodal Freight Program, which includes the planned Fayette County operation. Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the grant gives money to the railroad to improve its rail lines and facilities between the Gulf Coast and the Northeast. The grant enables Norfolk Southern (NYSE: NSC) to begin construction of several previously announced Crescent Corridor projects, while delaying other elements for later public-private partnerships.

The Crescent Corridor is an existing 2,500-mile rail network through 13 states from Louisiana to New Jersey that touches 26 percent of the nation’s population and 30 percent of the nation’s manufacturing output. Norfolk Southern is building a $129 million intermodal terminal on a 570-acre site in Rossville, Tenn., just east of Memphis. It’s expected to open by January 2012. That facility will be able to handle 327,000 containers and trailers annually. There will be a paved area to park 2,177 trailers.

The $105 million TIGER grant joins funding from Virginia, Pennsylvania and money Norfolk Southern already committed to Crescent Corridor projects. The Crescent Corridor program of projects is estimated to cost $2.5 billion for full development by 2020. Crescent Corridor projects currently planned for development include new independent intermodal facilities at Memphis, Birmingham, Ala., and Franklin County, Pa.; the expansion of intermodal terminals in Harrisburg and Philadelphia, Pa.; and the addition of freight rail capacity in Virginia and Mississippi.