Norfolk Southern train in South Carolina

PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS TO PROMOTE RAIL

Working Together, NS and Public Partners Advance Sustainable Transportation Solutions

NS leads the industry in innovative public-private partnerships that strengthen the nation’s freight transportation system and produce significant public benefits. Federal, state, and local governments share a percentage of the costs of rail-related improvements based on the public benefits generated. These benefits include:

  • Jobs and tax revenue
  • Economic development
  • Reduced fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions
  • Less congestion and fewer truck-related accidents on interstate highways
  • Decreased maintenance and construction costs of roads and bridges
  • More opportunities for passenger rail

KEY PUBLIC/PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS

Combining private and public resources helps accelerate rail-related improvements, that provide mutual benefits, while addressing critical U.S. transportation infrastructure needs. Over the past two decades, our partnerships have included intermodal corridor projects that support shifting more freight from highway to rail, reducing carbon emissions; locomotive upgrades that help metropolitan regions like Atlanta, Chicago, and Pittsburgh improve air quality; and pioneering agreements that expand intercity passenger rail service while ensuring capacity to grow freight traffic.

Advancing Freight and Intercity Passenger Rail

In 2022, Norfolk Southern and Virginia reached an agreement to expand intercity passenger rail service between Washington, D.C., and the New River Valley. The deal further connects Virginia’s Blue Ridge region with Northern Virginia and points along Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor, including New York and Boston. It helps Virginia meet a growing demand for passenger rail while preserving a key link in the transportation supply chain for regional businesses that rely on freight rail to ship their goods to market.

Norfolk Southern Locomotive and Amtrak train

Low-emission Eco Locomotives

In 2015, Norfolk Southern rolled out our Eco locomotive initiative, a rebuild program that recycles older locomotive models and outfits them with new low-emission engines. We often pair the units with “slugs” – locomotives with traction motors but no engines – to add emissions-free pulling power and reduce fuel burn. With this effort, NS is helping major metropolitan areas like Atlanta and Chicago improve air quality while helping us achieve our corporate sustainability goals.

: Eco locomotive at 47th Street Yar

Memphis Regional Intermodal Facility

Opened in 2012, this facility is an anchor terminal for our Crescent Corridor, a 2,500-mile rail route across 11 states, from Louisiana to New Jersey. The high-capacity corridor provides shippers with reliable, truck-competitive intermodal service on the shortest double-stack route connecting the South and the Northeast. NS works with shippers and business partners to help them expand their reach using the corridor, such as the new product NS launched in 2023 to offer daily rail service between the Port of Virginia and our Memphis facility.

Memphis Regional Intermodal Facility

Investing in the Future of Rail

NS Intermodal Facility Supports Growth

In 2016, then-Vice President Joe Biden toured our Memphis Regional Intermodal Facility to talk about the benefits of freight rail. NS partnered with the U.S. Department of Transportation to build the $125 million facility, with the DOT awarding a grant through the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery, or TIGER, program. Our Tennessee terminal and a companion NS Crescent Corridor facility near Birmingham, Alabama, each received $52.5 million, the largest single award nationwide under the 2009 grant program.

To date, NS public-private partnerships involving intermodal projects have drawn about $355 million in public investment, while NS has invested over $396 million.

Joe Biden visits Intermodal Facility

Cleaner Air with Eco Locomotives

NS advanced our Eco locomotive rebuild program through partnerships that received grant awards from the federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) Improvement Program. These grants go to projects that help states and localities reduce transportation-related emissions, improve air quality, and comply with federal Clean Air Act attainment standards.

To date, NS public-private partnerships that reduce locomotive emissions and help improve air quality for communities we serve have drawn over $66 million in public investment, while NS has invested over $20.6 million.

Expanding passenger rail in Virginia

While mixing freight and passenger trains on the same mainline tracks can be a challenge, NS’ agreement with Virginia will accommodate both. As part of the deal, Virginia agreed to pay NS $38.2 million for right-of-way and tracks on a 28.5-mile section in the New River Valley and to fund infrastructure improvements that will support passenger rail and add capacity to enable growth of freight rail.

To date, public-private partnerships involving NS to expand passenger rail have drawn over $1.2 billion in public investment, including projects such as the Indiana Gateway to enhance Amtrak service and the Englewood Flyover in Chicago that eliminated a major bottleneck for freight, Amtrak, and Metra commuter trains.

Amtrak Train on Norfolk Southern rail in Virgini

Infrastructure Grant Opportunities


Norfolk Southern has a long history of working with a diverse group of public partners to help implement sensible and informed solutions to logistical issues and safety concerns that can impact the communities where we live and work.
 

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Train driving towards viewer on track encouraging ways to find your shipping industry