ELWOOD, Ill. — Fort Worth-based Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway Co. launched Monday what it says will become the industry model for shipping goods using a variety of transportation methods, the Dallas Morning News reported.
BNSF Logistics Park-Chicago is a 380-acre transportation hub that links the Midwest with East Coast railways and West Coast ports.
The railroad industry’s largest North American shipping lines, Maersk Inc. and Hanjin Shipping, have already signed on to use the BNSF development. Honda, Ford, Mitsubishi and Nissan and five other automakers also use the park’s automotive facility to ship their cars and trucks.
The Elwood logistics park, 52 miles southwest of Chicago, is the latest example of how BNSF is using intermodal shipping to attract business and boost revenue. Intermodal transportation — the shipment of goods using a combination of shipping, trucking and rail — represents about 30 percent of Burlington’s $9 billion in annual revenue.
“This is truly just the beginning for an exciting new model for freight logistics and industrial development in the United States,” said Matthew Rose, BNSF’s chairman, president and chief executive.
BNSF, the nation’s largest intermodal carrier, has been a pioneer in creating hubs and alliances with other transportation companies, said Anthony Hatch, an independent rail analyst. “Intermodal is going to be the linchpin of Burlington Northern’s growth plans,” he said.
The use of intermodal transportation is expected to grow 5 percent a year for the next several years and is likely to become U.S. railroads’ largest revenue source by the end of 2003, Mr. Hatch said.
As more manufacturing moves to Asia, “intermodalism is really going to be the future of rail transportation and growth,” Mr. Rose said. “Today about one out of every three shipments is intermodal. We think that by the end of the decade, that could be one out of every two shipments.”
The Elwood facility allows BNSF to consolidate Chicago-area international distribution for shippers. Before the park opened, goods from customers such as Hanjin would be sent to several Chicago-area rail yards and moved by truck to an eastern railroad line.
At Elwood, BNSF can ship the goods by train directly to the eastern rail lines, eliminating the added time for truck loading and travel.
That was a critical improvement for Hanjin, which recently named the railroad as its exclusive carrier from West Coast ports, said Ole Sweedlund, a deputy managing director for the shipper.
“It consolidates us to a single focal point,” Mr. Sweedlund said. “To say that we were pleased with this arrangement would be an understatement.”
The logistics park was built on the former Joliet Arsenal, which manufactured munitions until the early 1990s. It is part of a 1,100- acre industrial development by CenterPoint Properties that is expected to attract up to 17 million-square-feet of warehouses, distribution centers and manufacturers and 8,000 year-round jobs.
Elwood will be able to handle almost as much traffic as BNSF’s intermodal facility at Fort Worth’s Alliance Airport, company officials said. Unlike Alliance, however, the Elwood park will also provide direct rail service to area warehouses and distribution centers.