Coal company owner of new railway

Written by jrood

PBS Coals has invested in its own stretch of railroad, and this summer work on the project is complete, the Somerset, Pa., Daily American reports.

 The Friedens, Pa., company now has a 10-mile railway that will transport most of the coal to a Baltimore port to be exported. The project cost "just shy of $1 million," according to Hank Parke, director of business development.

The project was completed
even before the company receives an allocated $694,000 state grant from the
Rail Freight Assistance Program.



"We were approved for it,
but the budget hadn’t been finalized yet," Parke said. "We took a chance, but
we are increasing the number of trains we’re running and it was work that
needed to be done."



The track runs from the
Cambria cleaning plant to the S&C rail line, which hooks up near the sewage
treatment plant in Somerset Township.



Gov. Edward Rendell awarded
$24.5 million from Pennsylvania Department of Transportation’s Rail Freight
Capital Budget/Transportation Assistance and Rail Freight Assistance Program to
fund rail projects that would improve the quality of railroads and stimulate
jobs.



"Upgrading and expanding
our freight rail lines helps maintain service and also opens the door to
greater business opportunities," Rendell said in a press release. "These
investments will help meet growing demand for freight rail service and also
help ease highway congestion by reducing the number of trucks on our roadways."



Parke said that it is
essential to bring coal to market by train, and not practical to transport coal
long distances by trucks.

 One railroad car holds about four tri-axle truck
loads of coal, he said.



"Most of the trains we load
at the Cambria cleaning plant are about 80-car trains, so that’d be about 320
coal truck loads," he said. "That’s just not feasible. Therefore, this rail
line is absolutely essential to our operation."



Erin Waters, a
spokeswoman with PennDOT, said it is not uncommon that coal companies are
receiving grant money from the state to fund rail projects.



"There are many being
awarded to coal companies because we’re still a pretty big coal-producing
state," she said.



PBS Coals has used
railroads like CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern to transport coal for
years, but the new line is the only one the company owns.



Coal production has
continuously increased over the years, Parke said, and it will maintain that
trend.



"In 2006 at that location
we were running two trains a year," he said. "We’re looking at at least two to
three trains a week."



The company projects that
about four million tons of coal will be produced in 2010.

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