(The following story by Celinda Emison appeared on the Abilene Reporter-News website on May 13.)
ABILENE, Texas — Traffic on the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad is on the rise along the route from Galveston through the Big Country and to the Panhandle.
Officials at BNSF say the use of rail lines for the transport of goods has increased significantly particularly through Brownwood, where a switching yard is located. “My office is at the depot, and I have noticed more train traffic,” said James Campbell, executive director of the Brownwood Economic Development Corporation.
BNSF officials confirmed that for the last three to five years, traffic has increased, and as a result, more employees have been hired. But they would not say whether Brownwood will be considered more of a hub in the future.
Recently, other hubs have become filled to capacity due to increased traffic and officials are looking to other communities like Brownwood to catch the overflow.
“As traffic patterns evolved over the past 20 years, increasing opportunities to move traffic in long-distance direct trains reduced the need to sort and store freight at Brownwood, and levels of activity at the yard were reduced,” said Joe Faust, spokesman for BNSF. “Recently, however, as other switching yards in the Gulf have filled to near capacity, alternate sites such as Brownwood have increased in activity levels and importance to the BNSF network.”
Brownwood is attractive because of a small, but well designed switching yard, Faust said. As a result, BNSF has hired additional supervisors in Brownwood and other communities along the rail line.
“Brownwood was one of several locations on BNSF’s Gulf Division at which the supervisory staff was increased,” said Faust said. “The others were Somerville and Teague. As operational intensity grew at these locations, train crew staffing grew as well, and this created the need for additional supervision, which was met by the recent hiring actions.”
Long-term growth of the Texas economy has resulted in increased traffic across the spectrum of commodities hauled by BNSF, Faust said.
The main product originating from Brownwood is rock from the Vulcan Materials quarry. Various industrial products are transported to and from the Texas Pacifico Railway at San Angelo Junction including seasonal grain shipments originating at many locations on the subdivision.
The Lampasas Subdivision also hosts long-distance trains between Houston and New Orleans and the West Coast and Rocky Mountain regions of the US. These trains carry all types of industrial and consumer products moved by BNSF.