News Releases Receive Norfolk Southern news releases by email.
March 4, 2002
NORFOLK, VA -- Norfolk Southern Corporation (NYSE: NSC) participated in the location of 76 new industries and provided support for the expansion of 33 additional industries along its rail lines in 2001.
The new plants and expansions represent an investment of nearly $3 billion by Norfolk Southern customers and are expected to create more than 5,100 jobs while generating more than 95,000 carloads of new rail traffic annually.
The industrial development projects include facilities involved in the handling of plastics, steel, agricultural and food products, automobiles, paper and construction materials.
"The location of new businesses on Norfolk Southern's network remained strong in 2001, despite a soft economy that resulted in some industries postponing expansions," said Larry Collingwood, assistant vice president industrial development. "Strategic initiatives to attract the plastics industry produced excellent results, with eight new plastics companies locating on our lines and another five expanding."
Other major projects included the completion of the IPSCO Inc. steel plate minimill in LeMoyne, Ala.; Stolt-Nielsen Transportation Group's deep-water terminal and liquid bulk distribution facility at Braithwaite, La.; Minnesota Corn Processing's sweeteners distribution terminal at Devault, Pa., and expansion of the Coors Brewing Co. bottling facility in Shenandoah, Va.
Norfolk Southern will serve several large facilities scheduled for completion in 2002, including Southeast Toyota Distributors' new auto processing facility in Jacksonville, Fla., and the new Steel Dynamics Inc. structural steel minimill at Columbia City, Ind.
"Customers increasingly are selecting rail-served sites because rail is an economical, efficient and integral part of their logistics chains," Collingwood said. During the past 10 years, Norfolk Southern has participated in the location or expansion of 1,144 industries, which invested $21 billion and created more than 58,000 jobs in the territory served by the railroad.
Norfolk Southern maintains a computer database of detailed site profiles that allows for quick and comprehensive responses, usually within 24 hours. "Our ability to provide full in-house engineering and consulting services to new business prospects makes Norfolk Southern a valuable industrial development partner," Collingwood said.
Norfolk Southern works with state and local economic development authorities on projects involving site location and development of infrastructure to connect customers to its rail system and provides free and confidential plant location services, including site layout, engineering and logistics assistance. Offices are located in Atlanta; Binghamton, N.Y.; Birmingham, Ala.; Columbia, S.C.; Columbus, Ohio; Detroit; Harrisburg, Pa.; Indianapolis, Ind.; Nashville, Tenn.; Philadelphia; Raleigh, N.C.; Roanoke, Va.; and St. Louis.
Norfolk Southern Corporation, a Virginia-based holding company with headquarters in Norfolk, owns a major freight railroad, Norfolk Southern Railway Company, which operates approximately 21,500 miles of road in 22 states, the District of Columbia and the province of Ontario.
Media Contact: Bob Fort, Norfolk, 757-629-2710
News Releases
Receive Norfolk Southern news releases by email.