Fw: Chattanooga seeks intermodal facility

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----- Original Message ----- 
From: Neill Herring 
To: neillherring at earthlink.net 
Sent: Tuesday, June 26, 2007 7:40 AM
Subject: Chattanooga seeks intermodal facility


Chattanooga to compete for major freight terminal
Tuesday, June 26, 2007

     
        
      J. Ed. Marston - Download MP3- 
By Cliff Hightower
Staff Writer

Chattanooga and Hamilton County officials said Monday they will compete for a major railroad freight terminal that Norfolk Southern hopes to build in East Tennessee within the next six years.

"We talked to them about Enterprise South as a potential site," Hamilton County Mayor Claude Ramsey said. "We told them we'd like to see it here."

Susan Terpay, spokeswoman for Norfolk Southern, said Monday the company plans to build two intermodal freight terminals -- one in Maryland and the other in East Tennessee -- as part of a $2 billion upgrade of its railroads from New Jersey to Louisiana called the "Crescent Corridor."

"Intermodal" refers to a location where cargo containers can be transferred between rail cars and trucks, she said.

The improvements are part of a plan to increase connectivity in the Southeastern United States as auto manufacturers move into Mississippi and Georgia, Norfolk Southern officials said. East Tennessee lies halfway between the line's anchors, making it a prime area for loading and offloading of freight bound for areas in between, Ms. Terpay said.

She said it is too early to know how many jobs an intermodal terminal could create because the company still is developing its strategy.

Mr. Ramsey said Norfolk Southern officials toured the west campus of the Enterprise South industrial park two weeks ago and found enough land to accommodate a rail terminal, a megasite and smaller industries.

"It would not interfere with a megasite or the smaller tracts," he said.

Richard Beeland, spokesman for Chattanooga Mayor Ron Littlefield, said Mr. Littlefield agreed Enterprise South is a suitable site.

"We have extended our hand to (Norfolk Southern) and they're familiar with Chattanooga's qualities, but we haven't heard back from them," Mr. Beeland said.

J.Ed. Marston, the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce's vice president of marketing, said Chattanooga could be in hot competition with Knoxville because Norfolk Southern considered building an intermodal terminal there in the late 1990s.

"We're going to do everything we can to be in the game," Mr. Marston said.

He said it is hard to determine how much economic impact such a development could create, but he said there would be new jobs outside the terminal itself and it would act as a recruiting tool for pulling a major manufacturer into Enterprise South.

During talks in the past year with Toyota Motor Corp. over a possible auto assembly plant, Norfolk Southern personnel showed interest in building a similar facility, a local economic development official said. But the current facility under study is a separate matter, officials said.

Jerry Bohannon, executive director of the Cleveland/Bradley County Chamber of Commerce, said if Norfolk Southern officials are looking for tracts of land that are about 200-to-300 acres, that county may make a pitch. But he would lobby for Chattanooga as well, he said, as Bradley County lies only miles away and still could reap rewards from such a facility.

"I sure would like to see something carved out of Enterprise South for this," he said.

Staff writer Mike Pare contributed to this story.

E-mail Cliff Hightower at chightower at timesfreepress.com

E-mail Mike Pare at mpare at timesfreepress.com
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