Norfolk Southern announced it will build a new intermodal terminal in Rossville, Tenn., to serve the Memphis region, as part of the railroad's Crescent Corridor initiative to establish a high-speed intermodal rail route
between the Mid-South and Gulf Coast and the Northeast. The $129 million facility, in which freight is transferred between truck and rail, will occupy a 570-acre site and is expected to open in January 2012.

Norfolk Southern's Crescent Corridor initiative is a multistate network of infrastructure improvements and other facilities intended to enhance Norfolk Southern's 2,500-mile rail network that supports the supply chain from the Gulf Coast, Birmingham and Memphis to Philadelphia and the New York metropolitan area and enable it to handle more freight traffic faster and more reliably. The railroad is in the process of implementing Corridor projects, including straightening curves, adding passing tracks, improving signal systems, and building new terminals.

"Because of its strategic location and growing intermodal demands in the South, the Memphis regional terminal will be an anchor for the Crescent Corridor, and the new facility will help make possible truck-competitive freight transportation between the South and major Northeast markets," said Norfolk Southern CEO Wick Moorman.

The Memphis regional intermodal facility will have the capacity to handle more than 327,000 containers and trailers annually. There will be a paved area to park 2,177 trailers and containers mounted on chassis. The terminal will use the latest in gate and terminal automation technology, which will reduce the waiting time to get into the terminal. Four trains will serve the terminal daily.