Union Pacific unveils $400M Santa Teresa rail facility

From the El Paso Times - By Vic Kolenc  - New Mexico politicians showered Union Pacific officials with accolades Wednesday during the official christening of the railroad's new, $400 million, 2,200-acre rail facility in Santa Teresa, which officials expect to bolster economic development in this region for years to come.
     New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez even had the more than 700 people, who were assembled underneath a huge white tent on a hot, sunny morning at Union Pacific's new facility, give railroad officials a standing ovation.
     The facility includes one of Union Pacific's largest fueling facilities and the railroads's largest intermodal freight terminal along the U.S.-Mexico border. The 300-acre, high-tech intermodal terminal opened April 1 and is expected to process more than 170,000 freight containers this year, and many more in the future, from West Coast ship ports and inland terminals in Chicago and other metro areas.
     Union Pacific Chief Executive Officer Jack Koraleski said the new facility is making Santa Teresa "a strategic focal point for goods movement in the Southwest United States." The new intermodal facility will allow the railroad to grow its freight business in this region because its old El Paso facilities could not be expanded, Koraleski said.
      A steady stream of trucks haul the containers in and out of the facility via the new, six-mile state-built Strauss Road. The trucks can get through the mostly automated intermodal terminal in an average one to two minutes, he said. The national average for intermodal truck processing is five to six minutes, he said.
     The old El Paso intermodal facility in East Central El Paso and its Downtown El Paso freight yards are not going away as some people have thought, Koraleski said. The El Paso facilities will be used to expand Union Pacific's traditional box car freight business in this area, he said. More

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