KCS bolsters its intermodal WIT

Written by Mischa Wanek-Libman, editor
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The opening of the Wylie Intermodal Terminal centralizes KCS' Dallas-area facilities and allows the railroad to continue tapping cross-border intermodal traffic.

 

{besps}August15_intermodal{/besps} {besps_c}0|1intermodal.jpg| WIT has more than double the annual lift capacity of KCS’ Zacha facility, which will cease operations with WIT’s opening.{/besps_c} {besps_c}0|2intermodal.jpg| An aerial view of the new Wylie International Terminal.{/besps_c}

 

The opening of the Wylie Intermodal Terminal centralizes KCS’ Dallas-area facilities and allows the railroad to continue tapping cross-border intermodal traffic

Kansas City Southern has spent years developing, enhancing and investing in an international intermodal corridor. KCS Chief Executive Officer told Railway Age in March 2014, “It’s no secret inside the railroad industry and investment community that the intermodal sector is growing rapidly.”

The railroad has expanded facilities at Puerta Mexico, Salinas Victoria, Intepuerto and Kendleton, Texas, but KCS was beginning to feel the pinch of its Dallas (Zacha) Ramp, which was originally build in the 1950s.

The Zacha site was landlocked with no option to acquire surrounding properties.

“Our old Zacha facility had essentially run out of capacity and, although process improvements had been achieved over the past years, constructing a new facility allowed us to enhance the efficiency of traffic and handling significantly,” said KCS.

The railroad says its first priority as it was planning a new terminal was to build a dedicated intermodal facility, capable of handling the growing volume to, from and through the Dallas area. KCS began construction on the more than $64-million, 92-acre Wylie Intermodal Terminal (WIT) in June 2014 and held a ribbon cutting ceremony for the new facility on July 30, 2015.

“The Dallas area is an important market and, hence, a high-density destination for intermodal and trailer traffic coming off the Meridian Speedway from the southeast U.S. and from ports on the eastern seaboard,” said KCS. “Furthermore, Dallas is a critical connection point for traffic originating or terminating in the southeast and connecting to/from the Pacific ports, primarily for Asian imports and exports. The Kansas City Southern Wylie Intermodal Terminal will, therefore, play a key role in enabling these intermodal markets to grow, while at the same time adding fluidity to the intermodal network through operational efficiencies.”

The railroad explains the Zacha site was constrained with the ability to only have short stub end tracks where the Wylie facility allows KCS to provide long, double-ended tracks for ease of train spotting and makeup. Additionally, the railroad was able to continue service in the area by keeping Zacha opened while it constructed a new, green field site.

“The green field construction provides for more cost-effective design options and less costly construction, as you are not required to phase construction activities to accommodate on-going operations. Kansas City Southern was able to provide for more efficient parking, entrance gate activities and increased fluidity to the operation,” said the railroad.

“As on all construction projects, we learned some lessons for the next one,” explained the railroad. “We can always benefit from better communication between various departments to ensure everyone’s needs are met. We also benchmarked several other railroads to identify optimal track layouts and parking schemes that would best fit our property layout. Benchmarking also included what lift equipment and strip track layouts would provide the most efficient operation for Wylie.”

The railroad built the facility using roller compacted concrete, which it has been utilizing for several years for all terminals in the U.S. and Mexico. KCS says this is a method of laying concrete paving much like asphalt paving with a very low slump, high strength concrete. It notes the advantages to this are low cost, high productivity and extended life with low maintenance of the pavement.

The end result is a state-of-the-art facility that has an Automated Gate System with high definition imagers, optical character recognition, biometric driver identification and the ability to stack containers. The WIT has more than double the annual lift capacity of Zacha, 342,000 units versus 168,000 units. It also has 3,800 additional feet of working track; 270 acres of undeveloped acreage and 440 additional wheeled parking slots, a 40 percent increase over what was available at Zacha.

While the proverbial paint has yet to dry, KCS has also planned for future enhancement of the WIT.

“Kansas City Southern has room to accommodate two more long loading tracks and another 1,500 parking spots in the next phase(s), depending on what aspect of expansion we need,” said the railroad. “The initial build-out has been made to allow for a roughly 45 percent increase in lift capacity as compared to the old facility. Blueprints exist for a second phase, which would add considerable additional capacity. There are currently no plans for initiating this additional build-out, but we believe the initial phase is sufficient for several years. Kansas City Southern will make sure to start any expansion with ample time to complete it in a timely manner, based on future growth rates.”

While the railroad will see increased capacity, improved safety and security, enhanced shipment mobility and fluidity, KCS is not the only beneficiary of the new terminal and it points to the impact the WIT will have on the surrounding community.

“The Kansas City Southern Wylie Intermodal Terminal brings a new gateway to the world to Wylie and to Collin County. It offers existing businesses here and future ones, the opportunity to move their goods to a national and international market by way of this world-class facility. It creates the opportunity for planned economic growth and development. It makes this area even more competitive to shippers looking to locate new operations near a facility like this. And, that creates the opportunity for new job creation and growth in the local tax base,” said the railroad.

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