Agriculture

Norfolk Southern Corporation's Agriculture, Fertilizer and Consumer Products team is ready to meet your specific rail transportation and distribution needs. We currently serve shippers and receivers of corn, wheat, soybeans, miscellaneous grains, animal and poultry feed, sweeteners, ethanol, food oils, flour, beverages, canned goods, consumer products, government and miscellaneous transportation.

In the Fall of 2000, the Ag Team began a new 75-car shuttle train program from the Midwest to feed mills in the southeast United States. This program has enabled us to deliver higher volumes of grain with fewer cars and less congestion on our rail lines. Features of the shuttle program include assigned power, improved transit times, and faster loading at origin and unloading at destination.

Members of our team also work with Norfolk Southern's Modalgistics department to locate sites that meet customers' changing distribution patterns. These sites include Norfolk Southern's Thoroughbred Bulk Transfer (TBT) facilities that are clean, secure and well-equipped for the transfer of bulk food and grain products from rail to truck. These centers are owned by Norfolk Southern and operated by independent contractors. TBT locations are found across our rail system in Atlanta (Doraville), GA; Buffalo, NY; Charlotte (Pineville), NC; Chattanooga, TN; Cincinnati (Mariemont), OH; Cleveland (Euclid), OH; Columbus, OH; Dalton, GA; Detroit (Willis), MI; Jacksonville, FL; Miami, FL; Richmond (Petersburg), VA; Spartanburg, SC; and Winston-Salem, NC.

Whether your company is new to rail or a veteran rail shipper, the Norfolk Southern Ag Team will work with you to provide the right transportation options for your particular commodity. For contacts and further information, please see the links below.

Announcements

We at Norfolk Southern continue to look for ways to better serve our customers.  Your need for competitive and easily accessible rates is an area we have targeted for improvement.  To address this issue we have earnestly worked to provide competitive rates in a public tariff format for the Fertilizer market. Please read more here.

• Effective July 15, 2009, This new tariff will provide more complete rate coverage than our previous public tariff.  These rates are currently available for viewing via accessNS.  In the event you’re not registered for accessNS , please register at your earliest convenience, noting registration may take up to 24 hours for system approval.  
• In effort to provide a smooth transition and to eliminate any confusion that may result from having more than one public document, we will eliminate our current public tariff per the expiration schedule below.  NOTE: This includes NSRQ 4448 and any other fertilizer-related authorities which begin with the NSRQ prefix.

• July 14th 2009 - Local NSRQs
• August 31st 2009 - Joint Line NSRQs

Quotes and Tariffs:

NS Public Price Lists for Agriculture are available through accessNS.

Faxed bills of lading to be subject to processing charge

Grain Customer Directory

Covered Hopper Car Distribution Policy and Procedures

Renewed Commitment to Car Quality

Norfolk Southern offers a "Renewed Commitment to Car Quality" video series to help shippers, receivers and the railroad network work together to maintain a good-quality, clean, railcar fleet. Our "Partnering for Quality Boxcars" video outlines steps for maintaining clean, quality boxcars and emphasizes the exterior doors on a boxcar. Some of Norfolk Southern's senior executives explain our renewed commitment to freight car quality and the value to you, our customers. The video also familiarizes you with basic boxcar components and the operation of boxcar doors. It demonstrates how a few simple steps can help keep boxcars in good, usable condition.

Our "Basics of Bulkhead Operations" video focuses on the interior panels known as bulkheads that are used to secure lading in some boxcars. This video will familiarize you with the basic bulkhead components and the issues unique to the operation of bulkheads. It demonstrates how a few simple steps can help keep bulkheads in good, usable condition.

To receive either video free of charge, please click on the following email address: ruth.grenier@nscorp.com.

For a Spanish version of "Partnering for Quality Boxcars", please click on the following email address: alarosa@nscorp.com.