The Toledo, Peoria & Western Railway (TPW), a subsidiary of Genesee & Wyoming Inc. (G&W), and Pacific Ethanol, Inc. have announced that unit train service has commenced from Pacific Ethanol’s plant in Pekin, Ill. The TPW is a switching and terminal railroad that serves the Pekin plant.
With the new service, TPW hauls the plant’s daily output to Creve Coeur, Ill., where the connecting TPW has the track capacity to aggregate the railcars and assemble unit trains comprised of up to 96 cars. The TPW then interchanges the unit trains with connecting Class I railroads for delivery to final destinations east of the Mississippi.
“This unit-train solution enables us to increase our overall sales volumes by expanding our ethanol distribution to new markets on the East Coast,” remarked Pacific Ethanol CEO Neil Koehler. “This agreement with TPW builds on our producer-marketer business plan for the Pekin plant, increasing revenue and providing reliable and efficient service to customers in new markets.”
Mike Webb, senior vice president for distribution services for G&W Railroad Services, said, “Enabling Pacific Ethanol to originate unit trains on the TPW is the third recent example of G&W railroad’s commitment to the biofuels industry. This past July, we announced a project that allows an ethanol customer to receive unit trains via G&W’s Arkansas Midland Railroad, and last year at this time, our San Diego & Imperial Valley Railroad opened a Choice Terminal bulk transload facility with a biofuels company as its anchor customer.”
According to G&W, the ethanol market is expected to remain strong overall, with increased demand from international markets and from certain U.S. markets raising their 10-percent blend minimums.
TPW is a short line railroad that runs 207 miles from western Indiana to Peoria, Ill. The railroad interchanges with several railroads including Canadian National, CSX, Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific. Commodities shipped include agricultural products, cement, chemicals, biodiesel and wind tower components. The railroad was acquired by G&W in 2012.