Three railroads selected for ASLRRA Business Development Awards

WASHINGTON — Three railroads — the Belpre Industrial Parkersburg, South Kansas & Oklahoma, and Union County Industrial — have been named by the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association as winners of its 2025 Business Development Award.

The award goes to railroads that show leadership and innovation with advancements in service, operations, and economic development that benefits their customers and communities. The railroads will be honored April 8 at the ASLRRA Annual Conference and Exhibition in Denver.

“The Business Development Award showcases the ethos of the short line industry — building strong relationships with customers and other partners, driving growth one carload at a time, and leveraging their unique strengths to benefit their shippers and the communities they serve,” ASLRRA President Chuck Baker said in a press release “Our awardees showcase short lines’ ability to grow, by attracting new customers to rail, by helping a long-term customer take the next leap in their strategic plan, and by working all manner of relationships to have a manufacture site their new facility in their area.”

Details on the awardees:

— The Belpre Industrial Parkersburg Railroad was honored for its work creating a transload service for Coterra Energy to transport non-hazardous wastewater from eastern Pennsylvania to southeastern Ohio. The project required coordination with the Pennsylvania Northeast Regional Railroad Authority, the Delaware-Lackawanna Railroad, CSX and Norfolk Southern, the Southeast Ohio Port Authority for assistance in acquiring permits, and DeepRock Disposal Solutions, which hands the arriving wastewater. Because the service can start or stop quickly based on market conditions, railcar storage at both the BIP and Delaware-Lackawanna was a significant factor.

BIP expects to move 700 to 2,000 carloads a year as a result, taking 3,500 to 10,000 trucks off the road. The project has led to six new transloading jobs and supported suppliers and construction projects at the points of origin and destination.

— The South Kansas & Oklahoma worked to accommodate a new $375 million soybean processing plant for long-time customer Bartlett Grain, recommending a facility site along its main line and making significant upgrades to its rail infrastructure, including upgrades to bridges, turnouts, rails, and sidings. The railroad worked with Bartlett on design and construction of rail infrastructure for the facility with multiple storage silos and a processing plant; a siding offers access to a 2-mile double loop track around the plant and five storage tracks that can handle multiple unit trains. The project also required coordination with CPKC, BNSF, and Union Pacific, including construction of an interchange with UP capable of handling unit trains of 286,000-pound cars.

The plant increased Bartlett’s traffic by 85% in the fourth quarter of 2024 compared to the previous, and is expected to increase South Kansas & Oklahoma traffic by 40%. It led the railroad to hire six new workers, with plans for six to eight more in 2025, and brought 70 new jobs to the area.

— The Union County Industrial Railroad helped Country View Family Farms bring a feed mill to New Columbia, Pa. The railroad’s marketing department identified a perfect site for the mill, and although the land was not for sale, introduced the company to the owner of the farm land. The three parties were able to reach an agreement, and in a year, Country View had built a facility with a 176-foot-tall mill tower, four 150-foot grain silos, and a 56-foot-tall pelleting annex. A 8,250-foot loop track can accommodate 115-car unit trains. The railroad also worked with Norfolk Southern, which established new trackage rights to enable CVFF to receive trains, and with state and local development groups to help fund the project.

The facility brought 50 new jobs to the area, helped maintain 231 jobs statewide, and supports 30 full-time truck drivers. And the project was built so that the farmland within the loop track is still being farmed.

More on the ASLRRA’s Business Development Awards and their criteria is available here.

https://www.aslrra.org/about-us/industry-awards-recognition/business-development-award/