Development: Today & Tomorrow

Accommodating the projected freight demand will become a major challenge. According to "Transportation Reboot," a recent report by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, by 2020, trucks will move three billion more tons of freight nationwide than they haul today, which translates into another 1.8 million trucks on the road. And by 2035, add another truck for every two trucks on the road today.⁵ Given that over 1.2 million trucks⁶ carrying freight that could be converted to intermodal traveled roadways parallel to the MidCon in 2008, we need to do more to expand and utilize the MidCon. Read further for details on projects proposed with our public partners who recognize the importance of the project to their state, region or community.

• Tower 55 Multimodal Improvement Project – In partnership with the State of Texas, BNSF and Union Pacific Railroad are seeking funding to remedy congestion and related issues in what has grown to become one of the nation’s busiest and most congested railroad intersections — Tower 55. Located in Fort Worth, Texas, approximately 100 freight and passenger trains move through Tower55 every day, carrying high priority intermodal goods, agricultural products, industrial and manufactured goods, and low sulfur coal. The result is heavy congestion. When implemented, this project would relieve rail congestion for passenger and freight trains, improving economic productivity, air quality and safety for the region.
• Kansas City Intermodal Facility – In partnership with the State of Kansas, BNSF plans to construct the Kansas City Intermodal Facility – a new, 443-acre $250 million intermodal facility located in Edgerton, Kansas. While this facility will be located on the TransCon Corridor, it will be within miles of where the TransCon and MidCon converge in Kansas City, providing the opportunity for goods to also move north/south on the MidCon. By increasing rail intermodal capacity in the Kansas City area, this project will avoid diversion of traffic to long haul trucking that otherwise would move by rail. This enhancement will reduce highway congestion, improving quality of life and livability of citizens along the major truck routes. Kansas City Intermodal, along with the planned logistics park, has the potential to create 13,000 jobs and remove an average of 3,000 long-haul trucks per day from highways.
• Grade Crossing Closures – BNSF, as the industry leader, has closed over 5,000 crossings to date system-wide.  Included in that total are over 480 crossings closed on the MidCon.  To learn more about grade crossing safety, visit BNSF.com.

⁵ AASHTO http://expandingcapacity.transportation.org/unlocking_freight/index.html

⁶ 2008 IHS-GI and Transearch Data