(The following story by Brendan Case appeared on The Dallas Morning News website on November 7, 2009.)
DALLAS — The Great Recession is apt to delay Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp.’s potential construction of a truck-and-rail cargo project in southern Dallas County, according to the railroad’s top executive.
“At some point in time, we think that we’ll have the need for an additional asset in southern Dallas,” said Matthew Rose, BNSF’s chairman and chief executive. “But this recession puts it out two or three more years.”
Since the economy fell into recession in December 2007, the demand for freight transportation of all kinds has plunged. BNSF has seen freight volume decline by 22 percent to 25 percent since the end of 2007, Rose said.
With less freight moving through the system, the southern Dallas investment will probably have to wait.
“We had originally talked about 2012 to 2014, so I think it’s well beyond that,” Rose said. “We just don’t need it.”
In 2008, BNSF bought 198 acres of land in the 6,000-acre Dallas Logistics Hub, with an option to buy another 164 acres.
The purchase raised hopes that the railroad would build an intermodal facility to transfer cargo containers between trucks and trains.
Union Pacific Corp. already operates such a facility near the potential BNSF project. Two such facilities would make southern Dallas more competitive as a logistics center.
The Dallas Logistics Hub is the centerpiece of the International Inland Port of Dallas, a public-private partnership that aims to make the area a larger center for logistics and distribution.
Richard Allen, CEO of the Allen Group, developer of the Dallas Logistics Hub, said he was optimistic BNSF would eventually build.
“It certainly doesn’t surprise me that they’re going to delay it given the downturn that we’re all going through,” he said.
“We didn’t buy the 6,000 acres and create the Dallas Logistics Hub because of the BNSF,” he said. “We did it because the UP was there, we did it because the highway infrastructure was there, we did it because the labor base was there, and we did it because of the political support to see that project created.”