(The following editorial appeared on The Herald-Dispatch website on February 21.)
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — An article in the Wall Street Journal last week described how American railroads are spending billions of dollars to upgrade their corridors.
According to the article, this is the first time in nearly a century that railroads are making such large investments in their networks. They are expanding tunnels for trains, adding sets of tracks and straightening curves that force trains to slow down.
For decades, railroads spent little on expansion, tore up surplus track and shrank routes. Since 2000 they’ve spent $10 billion to expand tracks, build freight yards and buy locomotives, and they have $12 billion more in upgrades planned, according to the article.
Among the major upgrades listed in the article and accompanying graphics is the Heartland Corridor, a project by Norfolk Southern to make its route from Norfolk, Va., to Chicago able to carry cargo containers stacked two high on flatcars. These double stacks, as they are called, are too high to pass through many tunnels, on some bridges and under some overpasses on the NS system.
The Heartland Corridor runs through Mingo and Wayne counties in West Virginia and Lawrence and Scioto counties in Ohio. The roof of the tunnel in Wayne County just north of the Mingo County line is scheduled to be raised in a few years. A bridge in Ironton has had some minor work to increase the clearance for double stacks.
Sometimes it’s hard to remember how important railroads are to moving freight through this area. We tend to forget about them until we’re stuck at a crossing or until an accident forces people out of their homes for a while.
The people who work at the CSX locomotive repair shops in Huntington or the yard at Raceland, Ky., know what the railroad means to the economy. And the NS Heartland Corridor project includes a proposed rail-to-truck terminal at Prichard, which would make container shipping more accessible for companies in a wide radius.
The Prichard intermodal facility could be the biggest improvement in the Tri-State’s transportation infrastructure since Interstate 64 and Tri-State Airport. It’s important that planning work continue and not get bogged down in petty fights that have delayed many such projects in the area.
Otherwise, we will miss out on an unmatched opportunity.