Norfolk Southern assisted 93 industries in locating or expanding their businesses along its rail lines in 2015, the railroad reported on Feb. 4, 2016.
The 61 new and 32 expanded industries represent an investment of $4.2 billion by NS customers and are expected to create 6,200 new jobs in the railroad's territory, generating more than 85,000 carloads of new rail traffic annually.
“While the energy sector has been severely impacted by the drop in commodity prices, this sector—including alternative energy production—still accounted for nearly 20% of the projects that started operations this year,” said Jason Reiner, Assistant Vice President Industrial Development. “However, the largest impact to our communities was the strong showing in manufacturing, accounting for $3.7 billion in new investment and 5,600 new jobs. Renewed growth in the automotive industry was the largest contributor to this success. We expect to see continued growth in manufacturing in 2016 as projects currently in development begin full operation.”
NS works with state and local economic development authorities on projects involving site location and development of infrastructure to connect customers to its rail system and provides free and confidential plant location services, including industrial park planning, site layout, track design, and supply chain analysis. During the past 10 years, NS’ Industrial Development Department has participated in the location or expansion of 989 facilities representing an investment of nearly $60 billion and creating more than 42,000 new customer jobs in the territory served by the railroad, the railroad says.