Norfolk Southern announced today that in 2020 the company assisted 86 businesses in locating new or expanded facilities on its freight rail network. The industries ranged from a medical products supplier and roofing shingle manufacturer to automakers and paper packaging producers. Across 18 states, Norfolk Southern customers invested $1.8 billion to open 70 new and 16 expanded rail-served facilities. The industrial development is expected to create more than 2,960 customer jobs and generate over 54,300 carloads of new rail volume annually for Norfolk Southern

Carload growth associated with the opening of new or expanded facilities in 2020 came from a diverse mix of business sectors. Among the largest development projects were a medical products production facility in Linwood, North Carolina; a paper packaging products plant in Palmyra, Pennsylvania;  a roofing shingle manufacturing facility in Avery, Ohio; a grain-related expansion in Portage, Indiana; a steel-mill expansion in Calvert, Alabama; and automotive-related projects in Tennessee, Alabama, West Virginia, Georgia, and Pennsylvania.

Supporting jobs and economic growth for communities, Norfolk Southern collaborates with customers and state and local economic development leaders to identify rail-served sites and to develop infrastructure that connects industrial development projects to its rail network. The railroad’s Industrial Development Department provides free and confidential facility-location services, including industrial park planning, site layout, track design, and supply-chain and sustainability analysis.

 -via Press Release