Atlanta Names Freight Rail SMART Zone

Georgias governor, Sonny Perdue (R) and Charles Graves, Commissioner of Planning and development for the Georgia cpital, joined the association of American Railroads and CSX Corp. and Norfolk Southern Corp. to recognize Atlanta for its role as a vital freight rail hub. Freight rail is used very efficiently to move consumer goods and products. It is the first ever city in the U.S. to be so named!

Gov. Sonny Perdue (R) and Charles Graves, Commissioner of Planning and Development for the Georgia capital, joined the Association of American Railroads (AAR), along with CSX Corp. and Norfolk Southern Corp. to recognize Atlanta for its role "as a vital freight rail hub."

Perdue said, "Consumer goods represent more than 60 percent of all the products moving through Atlanta on more than 2 million freight cars each year. The public benefits from the environmental and traffic congestion relief that comes from using rail to transport goods instead of trucks. The 2 million railcars moving through Atlanta each year ensures that 6 million trucks aren't traveling on the highways and interstates of
Georgia's capital city."

Perdue added, "Most people would be surprised by the wide variety of consumer products that today's freight railroads are moving. They're hauling computers, cars, clothing, appliances and food - items that consumers need for their homes and businesses need to operate. Freight rail is more connected to consumers and businesses than ever before."

Photograph by Leo King CSX and Norfolk Southern helped make Atlanta the nation’s first “freight rail smart zone.” Duke’s Crossing is the scene for this mostly autorack consist, in Jacksonville, Fla., in August.

CSX and Norfolk Southern transport many goods produced in Georgia, including carpet, cereal, outdoor grills, lighting fixtures, paper products and peaches. Together, they serve nearly 500 Atlanta-area companies, many of them household names like Georgia Power, UPS, Home Depot, Coca-Cola, Ford Motor Company, General Motors Corporation, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Georgia Pacific, Owens-Corning, Ralston Purina and Kellogg.

Both railroads recently opened state-of-the-art intermodal facilities in the Atlanta area - CSX's Fairburn Intermodal Terminal south of the city and NS's Whitaker Intermodal Terminal in Austell, the largest intermodal facility east of the Mississippi.

AAR CEO Edward Hamberger said, "The new intermodal facilities are not only positioned to serve current businesses in and around the Atlanta area, they play a pivotal role in attracting new industry and creating new jobs in the Atlanta area. Since 1994, NS and CSX have helped locate 72 new industries to the Atlanta area. Combined, CSX and NS employ roughly 9,000 Georgians."

He added, "With U.S. freight demand expected to nearly double in the next 20 years, intermodal transportation is the best way to handle the growth."

Hamberger said, "Freight rail movement of consumer goods as part of the intermodal network has been the fastest growing segment of the U.S. freight railroad industry over the past 10 years."

He added that the traffic outlook is healthy.

"Our own economic projections indicate that freight rail's intermodal shipments will surpass coal as the biggest revenue producer for railroads for the first time in history within the next six months. Atlanta is really leading the way in this transformation - and it couldn't happen without the support of the state and city governments who have helped make it possible for the industry to invest in intermodal rail improvements."