MARIETTA, Ohio — Short line Belpre Industrial Parkersburg Railroad is off to a good start since the 48-mile route in the Ohio Valley was spun off from CSX Transportation in May.
“We’re really focused on all of the current customers on the line. We’re focused on people that weren’t shipping by rail previously,” Cathcart says. “We’ve actually been successful already in converting a couple of moves from either truck or barge over to rail. Everything’s going well thus far.”
The key to hitting the railroad’s short-term growth target is converting a couple more potential customers to rail, Cathcart says.
The entrepreneurial short line also is branching out beyond just providing rail service. It’s running a storage-in-transit yard that involves managing a refinery’s tank car fleet, Cathcart says, and plans to develop a tank car cleaning facility. Cathcart Rail also operates the fast-growing Bucyrus Railcar Repair in its namesake Ohio city.
BIPR interchanges with CSX in Parkersburg, W.Va., daily and runs to the end of track at Relief, Ohio. The railroad serves a dozen customers, most of which are clustered in a 10-mile industrial corridor dominated by metals, plastics, and petrochemicals shippers on the Ohio side of the river.
CSX provided service up to five days per week. The BIPR provides daily service and has the typical shortline mindset of “every car matters,” Cathcart says.
“We’re striving for consistency, reliability, and serving the people who need it on a daily basis,” Cathcart says.
The more frequent and dependable service has already prompted some existing customers to ship more by rail, he says.
The railroad has hired 12 people and leased three GP38-3’s with a fourth unit on the way, Cathcart says. The power is painted in an attractive gray and black scheme with a gold stripe.
The transition from CSX went smoothly, Cathcart says, despite occurring on May 2, a couple weeks after the COVID-19 pandemic peaked in Ohio. “It actually might have been to our benefit. It allowed us to get our feet under us much, much faster and really streamline integration and startup and then grow into what would be normal volume,” Cathcart says. “I wouldn’t say it was good for us by any means, but it wasn’t bad for us.”
Looking long-term, Cathcart sees the Marcellus and Utica shale gas plays leading to significant growth in the region. Natural gas is the feedstock for petrochemicals and plastics production, and the area is close to hundreds of millions of consumers in the Eastern U.S.
“We’re all of the opinion that over the next 10 to 20 years there’s going to be a massive manufacturing boom throughout this region as a result of petrochemicals and plastics,” Cathcart says. “There’s going to be a tremendous growth and development cycle that hits this area, and that’s really the long-term play and vision that we’re focused on.”
Several large vacant parcels border the railroad and could be developed for major projects along the river, Cathcart adds.
BIPR operates the 5.29-mile Parkersburg Running Track from High Yard in Parkersburg across the Ohio River to Belpre, Ohio, as well as the 39-mile former Marietta Subdivision. The line includes the massive 4,300-foot bridge over the Ohio and features a stretch of street running in Marietta.
The line is all continuous welded rail and is capable of handling industry standard 286,000-pound carloads.
CSX put the route on the block in June 2018 along with five other low-density lines totaling 650 miles. At the time, CSX said it was committed to ensuring that local operators maintain service and seek to grow traffic volume.
