NS thanks state partners in Crescent Corridor stimulus application

Norfolk Southern commended its partners in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee for their leadership in supporting the Crescent Corridor program to increase rail freight transportation capacity and improve mobility and the environment.

"On behalf of Norfolk Southern, I thank our partners for
their farsighted support of the Crescent Corridor," said CEO Wick Moorman. "The
Crescent Corridor is a tremendous economic advantage for the states and the
nation. It will stimulate jobs, tax revenue, and business growth, while
delivering substantial public benefits for communities and customers. Governors
Ed Rendell, Tim Kaine, Bob Riley, Haley Barbour and Phil Bredesen are leading
the way in showing how public-private partnerships can create safe, affordable,
green solutions to America’s transportation infrastructure challenges."

Lead state Pennsylvania on
Sept. 14 submitted "The Crescent Corridor Intermodal Freight Application" to
apply for federal stimulus money under the American Recovery and Reinvestment
Act of 2009 Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER)
Program.

The application seeks $300
million in support of new independent intermodal facilities at Memphis,
Birmingham and Franklin County, Pa., and the expansion of intermodal terminals
in Harrisburg and Philadelphia. Track improvements in the five partner states
will include 10 passing tracks, 557 individual speed improvements, and 393
miles of track improved with upgraded rail.

These projects will help
the Crescent Corridor – an existing 2,500-mile rail network supporting the
supply chain from Memphis and New Orleans to New Jersey – handle more rail
freight traffic, faster and more reliably, creating or benefiting some 47,000
green jobs and producing these estimated annual benefits:

• 326 million in tax
revenues to states and communities.

• 1.3 million long-haul
trucks diverted from interstates.

• $146 million in accident
avoidance savings.

• 1.9 million tons in CO2
reduction.

• $575 million in
congestion savings.

• $92 million in highway maintenance savings.

• 169 million gallons in
fuel savings.

In their TIGER application,
the five partner states described the Crescent Corridor as, "one of the single
largest additions of new freight transportation capacity in America since the
Interstate Highway System. Building the last long haul intermodal freight distribution
supply chain is one of the best transportation investments of our time."