September 25, 2025 - TRA Newswire -

Union Pacific Railroad is looking at a little friendly competition and is proposing to build a new 5 mile long branch line that would serve a petrochemical facility in Bay City, Texas. That polymer plant, southwest of Houston in Matagorda county, is now only served by BNSF Railway. UP thinks that competitive rail access through the addition of a second carrier would "enhance operations and lower transportation costs" for the manufacturer. 

According to a filing with the Surface Transportation Board, Union Pacific said "the proposed Line will be referred to as the Wadsworth Industrial Lead. The proposed Line would connect LyondellBasell's existing polymer plant in Bay City, Texas (just south of Wadsworth, Texas) to Union Pacific's Angleton Subdivision. The project will strengthen LyondellBasell's position in the region by providing it with a second competitive rail option. The proposed Line will also provide long-term benefits to the local economy by making Matagorda County more attractive to future industrial investments along the Line."

Since it is a relatively small project, UP is asking the Surface Transportation Board to waive regulatory review. 

Union Pacific noted in their filing "an exemption from the full application requirements is warranted in this case because they are not necessary to carry out the rail transportation policy at 49 U.S.C. § 10101, the proposed construction is limited in scope, and Board regulation is not necessary to protect any shipper from an abuse of market power. Union Pacific's proposed rail construction is consistent with numerous decisions of the Board exempting similar transactions from the prior approval requirements."

UP said the railroad would operate two trains a day over the new line, one in each direction, seven days a week. 

In the filing, the proposed line would connect an existing LyondellBasell facility with the Angleton Subdivision of Union Pacific's network. Union Pacific plans to connect the proposed Line to its network via existing track refened to as the Celanese Industrial Lead and the Cities Service Track. The Celanese Industrial Lead is an approximately three-mile lead track that connects to the Angleton Subdivision at approximately milepost 277 and is cunently used to serve the Celanese facility. The Celanese Industrial Lead consists of: (1) track that is solely owned by Union Pacific that runs south from the Angleton Subdivision to the Celanese facility'; and (2) track that is jointly owned and partly jointly used by Union Pacific and BNSF Railway Company ("BNSF") that runs east-west between the Celanese facility and a connection to BNSF's network near Farm-to-Market Road ("FM") 2668. Additionally, Union Pacific and BNSF jointly own track known as the Cities Service Track that runs north-south parallel to FM 2668 between the Celanese Industrial Lead and Gilmore Road.

Union Pacific would construct a new west wye connection track near the intersection of FM 2668 and FM 3057 to connect the north-south joint track with the east-west joint track. The proposed Line to be constructed would run from approximately Gilmore Road to the LyondellBasell facility in Bay City, roughly parallel to FM 2668. The new line would cross FM521, FM2070 and the Lower Colorado River Authority Security Canal.

In the filing it was stated "the LyondellBasell Matagorda Plant is an integral part of the local economy, a leading producer of polymers and a leader in polyethylene technologies used to produce a variety of products consumers utilize every day such as housewares, building materials, automotive parts and packaging for food and personal care products. LyondellBasell's Matagorda facility is one of their largest high density polyethylene facilities in the United States. The plant employs over 200 local employees."

Photo credit: UP