The 58-acre site is being developed with an asphalt pad to allow for unloading of auto rack cars. A trackmobile will handle switching the automobile carriers. The facility will operate Monday through Friday. CN estimates it could receive up to 40 rail cars per day allowing it to process about 100,000 autos annually. Vehicles will be transferred to truck auto carriers; there could be about 80 truck trips in and out of the AutoPort daily.
The new facility offers an uptick in business along the Minneapolis Sub, which has seen traffic declines since CN took over the route from Wisconsin Central in 2001. Under WC control, the line saw coal and coke trains, served a canning plant in New Richmond, and pulpwood was loaded a few miles west in Somerset. All this traffic is now gone. The line is served by only three trains: L516/L517 between Stevens Point and Minneapolis, and a local out of Chippewa Falls. CN says the auto traffic will move on these existing trains. The AutoPort will be operational in June 2020. According to CN, the facility will create 10-12 new jobs, which the railroad will market locally.
The Minneapolis Subdivision consists of 124 miles of track between Owen, the junction with the Superior Subdivision, and Withrow, Minn., where it connects to Canadian Pacific’s Withrow Subdivision into Minneapolis. It was once part of Soo Line’s Chicago – Minneapolis main line. It was sold to Wisconsin Central in 1987 and came under CN control when it acquired WC in 2001.
CN is making a hard-play again for automotive traffic. Heard from an employee that they’re courting GM to regain traffic from the Orion and BOC Assembly operations, both in S. Michigan. I’d sure like to hear airhorns again on the last remnant of the old GTW Cass City Sub, the erstwhile PO&N or “Polly-Ann” here in SE Michigan.
That’s a lot of cars added to those roads every year… and through just one port of entry to this market, I bet…