1. Developers who are looking to build rail-served industrial parks must consider a few questions.
2. Does it make sense to provide freight rail service to this development and is there a market for it? What must be accounted for when it comes to logistics, internal and external operations, cost and design?
3. After determining the facility type, identify the transportation access the site will require. Is the site near a major highway, port or inland port? Is there existing access to rail onsite?
4. The Transportation Research Board(TRB)’s National Cooperative Freight Research Program study recommends the goals of delivering goods with speed and accuracy that meets or exceeds the competitive standards in the market and establishing a set of logistics costs that are as low as possible within the delivery standards. In other words, the site’s location should help lessen operating time and monetary commitments.
5. Next, research the demand in the area and find out if the community has sufficient workforce resources. Then, consider how the facility will operate and who will operate it. How does the location fit within the supply chain network? Will the site be cost-effective, or are off-site or on-site improvements needed? Are there competitive local development or tax incentives?
6. Determine if there are rail crossings (existing or proposed) that should be considered or if there are other operational limitations (i.e., dimensions of the property or topographic challenges).
7. Be prepared for the financial commitment required to hold the land longer or keep it under contract for additional time.
8. Realize there are aspects of a railroad’s business that are not publicly available that allow the railroad to remain competitive.
9. Make sure to allot enough time to establish a service agreement and navigate the process with multiple parties within the railroad.
ASSESSING OPERATIONS
1. While many railroads can provide input on the feasibility of a site, they need to understand the project’s intended use and operation.
2. When it comes to railroad access onto and within a site, think about how many tracks may be required. This can be dictated by the user and/or the railroad.
3. Next, identify the product the end user will receive or ship out. This will inform the types of rail cars and the loading/unloading operation needed, whether loaded into a building, onto a paved storage area or pumping material into silos.
4. The railroad will want to know if this will be a relocated operation or a new operation as that plays into their planning.
5. Once you’ve established the goods being transported, determine the volume and length of trains and how they impact onsite requirements.
6. Is there a predictable delivery schedule for the products and does that coincide with the railroad’s operations?
7. Plan out not only when shipments should be delivered, but also consider when the railroad can feasibly deliver them. These conversations will be vital to any agreements with the railroad.
8. Will full rail cars arrive at one time and empty ones depart the same way, or will the cars be delivered and removed at unpredictable times?
9. If so, it might be necessary to separate receiving and departure tracks or add a siding track adjacent to the mainline for switching so mainline operations aren’t interrupted.
10. Anticipate volumes growing over time and plan for future expansion on the proposed site, even if it happens in phases.
11. Make sure to also consider what’s happening on the railroad side. For instance, is this site adjacent to a high-speed mainline? Are there passing sidings nearby?
12. Understanding how the facility will operate, the trains will arrive, the trains will be processed, the departing trains will be built, and how the trains will depart is critical.
13. Also, investigate the cost of constructing rail infrastructure off-site including bridges, culverts, retaining walls and at-grade crossings.
14. Well-planned operations are a useful tool for developing a strong design for a project, and this early coordination can help speed up the design and approval processes
DESIGNING WITH THE TRACKS
1. One of the last steps in completing a site’s due diligence is finalizing a design concept. What is the most efficient layout for the project that maximizes the footprint?
2. The required or typical acreage will vary depending on the unique needs of the user and the site.
3. What about access off the main roadways? Because this is valuable input for the design process, the railroad access and layout should not be an afterthought.
4. Railroad design is quite rigid compared to standard roadway design. Grades need to be flatter and curves need to be gentler. It must meet minimum requirements for the operating railroad to approve the design.
5. For example, utilities and pipes crossing underneath the track typically need to be deeper than a standard site without rail service. Is it possible to develop a rail alignment that works for both the railroad and the facility, while also balancing the site’s earthwork to keep the project in budget? All these restrictions have the potential to derail the initial concept.
6. The railroad design is directly tied to the proposed facility’s operations, and not only to the railroad operations. When a train is pulled in, will it block a circulation road? If so, for how long? Is the train’s dwell time for uncoupling cars accounted for?
7. If the railroad is making multiple deliveries to industries in the area and enters the site with a longer train, the train could block traffic and emergency access within the site and completely halt operations.
8. How will the rail cars be unloaded? If you’re unloading at dock doors, has the finished floor elevation accounted for the appropriate commodity’s car type floor height? Will equipment to unload cars at the dock doors need to be installed? If deliveries are being unloading on pavement with forklifts, is there an efficient circulation path? Is a grade crossing needed to cross the tracks with the forklifts?
9. The considerations for the site cannot ignore the considerations for the rail, and vice versa. The site operations and the railroad operations need to coordinate or all parties will lose efficiency.
Source:
https://www.naiop.org/Research-and-Publications/Magazine/2021/Spring-2021/Development-Ownership/How-to-Create-a-Superior-Rail-Served-Industrial-Property
