Ports of Indiana cuts ribbon on Mount Vernon Railroad
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Officials with the Ports of Indiana and Denver-based OmniTrax marked the grand opening of the new Mount Vernon Railroad in southwest Indiana with a ribbon cutting ceremony on Tuesday.
The railroad serves as the switching carrier for the Ports of Indiana-Mount Vernon, the state’s largest port, and connects businesses at the port to four Class I railroads: BNSF, CSX, Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific.
Ports of Indiana CEO Jody Peacock told Inside INdiana Business that the new railroad creates a “mega-modal” opportunity for large-scale economic development in the region.
“It combines a megasite at the port—our largest megasite anywhere in Indiana—with the industrial development partnership of OmniTrax, which operates 30 railroads around the country [and] 50 transload facilities,” Peacock said. “We’ve had as many as 40,000 to 50,000 rail cars per year go through that port, and so providing good rail service is critical for the future development and growth of our companies.”
The ribbon-cutting ceremony included students from two local elementary schools, who helped name the two locomotives at the railroad, “Power Paws” and “Wildcat Express.”
“The Mount Vernon Railroad is the backbone of our heavy-haul logistics infrastructure and a major economic resource for our local community,” Mount Vernon Port Director Jason May said in written remarks. “We’re excited to celebrate this best-in-class rail collaboration with our regional partners and to have the young people in our community play a role in naming the two locomotives that will serve businesses at our port for many years to come.”
Last July, the port authority announced the partnership with OmniTrax, which would serve as the new rail operator and development partner for the Mount Vernon port.
Plans for the Mount Vernon Railroad were announced the following September with the goal of not only supporting existing businesses at the port, but attracting new ones.
“Mount Vernon has our biggest economic opportunity in the future,” Peacock said. “It has the most land, and so we’re putting our money into that, so to speak; we’re putting our money where our mouth is.”
The Ports of Indiana is currently investing $25 million in various projects at the Mount Vernon port, particularly in support of steel, automotive, plastics, energy, and heavy industrial growth.
Among those projects is a new railyard and transload facility that received an $11.2 million federal grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation. The project had an original overall price tag of $16 million, but Peacock said that estimate has grown closer to $20 million, and the project is still in the planning phase.
“We received the grant award last year, and so it’ll probably be a two-year development process to get that up and running, but we’re excited to see we’ve had a lot of inquiries about that,” he said. “I think we had 32 potential projects looking at using that facility, so we’re excited to make those come to fruition in the not too distant future.”
The port authority also received a $2.25 million DOT grant acquire a heavy-lift crane, which Peacock said will support the handling of new large project cargo and dimensional steel shipments.
Last October, the Ports of Indiana also launched Indiana River & Rail Terminals, which will manage all general cargo facilities at the Jeffersonville and Mount Vernon ports.
“The combination of investment and new partnerships really create some excitement at that port like we’ve never seen in years,” Peacock said. “So the stars are aligning in Mount Vernon right now, and we’re excited to celebrate this new partnership with the railroad and hope it’s just the start of big things to come for that port in the near future.”
In 2024, the Mount Vernon port handled 6.6 million tons of cargo, helping to push volume shipments at Indiana’s three ports to the second-highest year ever.