The Indiana Rail Road Company and the Canadian National Railway Company announced today an agreement on the construction of an intermodal terminal in Indianapolis and their plan to offer Indiana importers and exporters an all-rail option for containerized products moving to and from Asia.

CN serves the Port of Vancouver, B.C., and the Port of Prince Rupert, B.C., and a wide range of container shipping lines that offer scheduled service from all major Asian ports.

“CN is pleased to enter into this partnership with the Indiana Rail Road,” said Jean-Jacques Ruest, CN executive vice-president and chief marketing officer. “This all-rail service will reduce transit times and improve transportation consistency for Indiana importers, making their supply chains more competitive. CN’s level-of-service agreements with the container terminal operators at Vancouver and Prince Rupert deliver superior fluidity from ship-to-rail at the ports.”

“This is a great day for Indianapolis-area importers and exporters who for years have asked for all-rail, direct-west coast intermodal service to the city,” said Tom Hoback, INRD founder, president and chief executive officer.

“Anyone who drives Interstate 65 between Indianapolis and Chicago knows what a bottleneck it is. CN-INRD intermodal service will offer a more reliable, consistent and environmentally-friendly movement of goods that is less susceptible to costly weather and congestion delays.”

The new Indianapolis terminal is under construction and will be located at INRD’s existing Senate Avenue Terminal, strategically located in downtown Indianapolis, less than a mile from Lucas Oil Stadium. It will be complemented by a container yard and will start receiving empty containers June 15, 2013; an on-site agricultural products containerized export loading facility will be in service about the same time.

The first import train will arrive in late June. CN estimates containerized import goods will flow in as little as 18-20 days from port loading in Shanghai and Qingdao, China, and Busan, Korea, to the INRD Senate Avenue Terminal, when using first port of call service.

The Indiana Rail Road Company is a privately-held, 500-mile railroad based in Indianapolis. The company hauls the equivalent of more than 800,000 truckloads of consumer, industrial and energy products each year. On the strength of its customer service, INRD was awarded Railway Age magazine’s prestigious “Regional Railroad of the Year” award for 2012.

The company is also active in the community, operating the popular Santa Train, serving as a major sponsor of “Jingle Rails” at the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art, and providing education and public safety-related community grants.

Source: Canadian National Railway Co. and Inside INdiana Business