![Map of planned auto transport facility](https://www.trains.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/TRN_Maryland_Heights_facility.jpg)
MARYLAND HEIGHTS, Mo. — The city council of a St. Louis suburb on Thursday approved construction of a facility for shipping automobiles by rail, despite the decision of its planning commission not to recommend the project and the objections of residents in the community of Maryland Heights and a neighboring city.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that Precision Vehicle Holding of Wayne, Mich., wants to rezone 91 acres to allow construction of the facility to ship vehicles by rail and road from the General Motors assembly plant in Wentzville, Mo., about 25 miles away. The facility would include a 3,500-square-foot office building and 9,500-square-foot truck repair shop. The site is served by a short line in the process of being transferred to Jaguar Transport Holdings, which will operate it as the Missouri Eastern Railroad.
The site is on Maryland Heights’ border with Chesterfield, Mo., and sits below an area overlooked by some 388 homes. The planning commission declined to recommend the project because of the potential negative impact on those residents from overnight rail operations. Precision appealed that decision, saying the planning commission exceeded its authority because rail operations are under federal control.
The Chesterfield city council also passed a resolution last week opposing the project, although it has no legal force.
Some 200 residents were on hand at Thursday night’s council meeting, while a Chesterfield neighborhood group hired an attorney to represent it before the council. Precision’s attorney told the meeting the project would be “no different than a car dealership … just with rail access.”
For those chiming in about vehicles loaded off site of assembley plants. This is nothing new and fairly common.
Just thought I would add that the former Wabash line that services Wentzville can only cross the Mississippi at the Merchants Bridge in downtown St Louis. NS is very dependent on that bridge to service the southeast and east, because after it crosses the river it splits in two. One goes to Louisville, KY and destinations in the SE. The other goes up to Decatur Illinois and meets the line from Kansas City and continues on to the east and north.
The TRRA has had the Merchants Bridge out of service for a long planned upgrade due to it reaching its EOL. While it was dual track, the 1889 bridge could only run 1 freight at a time at a very slow speed. Covid has delayed some of the work on it as Walsh not only redid the piers for seismic reasons, but they replaced those ancient spans with new ones. The new spans didn’t go up until September of 2021.
When you take that bridge away, that meant NS would have to backtrack eastbound traffic by going west to Moberly to the Kansas City line. But Moberly Yard doesn’t have a wye for traffic from St Louis to turn east to Hannibal. So they would have to yard the consist and re-engine it. All time consuming activities.
Ah! you say, NS has haulage rights on BNSF north to Hannibal along the river, just use that! Nope. The switch at Hannibal between NS and BNSF does not permit northbound traffic to switch onto the NS going east. Only southbound traffic on BNSF can switch west on NS.
Wait, couldn’t they just use the other bridge TRRA owns (MacArthur) and take it across there? NS has a connection off TRRA at Bridge Junction on the Illinois side. Well, that would require NS to pull into UP Lesperance yard and do a switch over to the TRRA track and move the engines around. (or pay TRRA to take it over)
What a mess!
I reckon GM was getting just a bit frustrated with the situation over the past 3 years and needed options.
Central Midland using the former Rock Island, can change with UP going west at the Labadie Industrial Spur. The rest interchange thanks to its connection with the TRRA West Belt Line to the Carrie switch. TRRA can then take it across the river to CSX, KCS, or UP going to Chicago or BNSF going west.
Excellent analysis, John. I agree, what a (expensive) mess.
Building the distrubtion center next to manufacturing will save more energy and reduce road traffic. Why at this place and why now, should be questions that are asked.
Not sure where the shortline connects to a class 1 but no doubt someone on this thread can clear that up. Suggesting the auto manufacturers are experiencing what the entire supply chain is experiencing: Truck drivers wishing to work local dray but not sacrifice quality of life factors in long-haul trucking.
The connection is another 15 miles or so east in north St Louis city with Norfolk Southern. Not sure how this option will be viable as they will have to drive or transport by truck to the Maryland Heights facility from Wentzville.
Guess that’s one of the pitfalls of building a development on top of a bluff. They already overlook the town water treatment plant, so not sure why there’s so much concern.
How many auto plants are we up to now that have an NS-served ramp on their property, but have initiated ventures to build a ramp on another line? Three? Not a good look for NS.
Yeah, why don’t they ship the cars from the assembly plant? Why haul them all over Missouri to get to this yard?
GM assembly plant has rail service now (Wentzville), this is an option to gain access to other carriers and negotiate better rates. The short line mentioned is the former Rock Island line (only goes west to Union or so now–rest of line across the state to become a bike trail) which line connects to other carriers in St Louis. RI line also has a recent history of being used as a tool to gain more favorable rates for an electric utility which tale is too long to go into here.
I suppose reciprocal switching rules could end these maneuvers.
“No different than a car dealership…just with rail access”… prettty much like someone telling me my back yard is no different than a nature park, except for the double track railroad running right behind it.