YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – A $2.9 million expansion of Youngstown & Southern Railroad’s Lansingville Yard should be complete sometime next year, an official with the railroad’s parent company said Monday.
Brendan Keener, vice president of commercial development and government affairs at Midwest & Bluegrass Rail in Kansas City, Mo., confirmed in a phone interview this week that the rail company planned to move forward with building Lansingville Rail Park, a five-track yard to centralize its storage-in-transit operation.
Within Lansingville Rail Park, Y&S Railroad plans to construct and operate a multi-track rail yard, to be called Lansingville Yard, according to a news release sent Tuesday afternoon.
“MB Rail is excited to make this investment with the support and encouragement of Lake to River,” Keener said in the release. “Lansingville Rail Park will be a cornerstone of Y&S Railroad’s growth strategy and commitment to fostering commerce and job creation in the Mahoning Valley for years to come.”
Though Keener could not go into detail on the project timeline because of factors including material procurement and ensuring everything is ready on the site before construction, he said Y&S hopes to complete the project in 2025.
Youngstown & Southern Railroad LLC purchased a site adjacent to Lansingville Yard on Nov. 21 from 2057 Poland Avenue LLC for $3.5 million, according to a real property conveyance fee statement of value and receipt. The document stated that the intended use of the property is as a railroad yard.
Y&S Railroad is a Class III short line that conducts freight rail operations in northeastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania.
“We had an opportunity to move forward with that site,” Keener said. Since it was in close proximity to Y&S’s two Class 1 rail connections – CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern – “we felt like we couldn’t pass up on the chance to pursue a project there,” he added. He also said his company has been working with Lake to River Economic Development, the new local JobsOhio partner, over the past several months.
The transaction was recorded a week after the Ohio Rail Development Commission approved a $1.46 million grant to Y&S to support the project.
Y&S was experiencing an increase in rail car volume and customer demand that necessitated an expansion of its infrastructure in the area, Keener said. The property became available following long-term discussions with the previous owner.
“The Y&S railroad has leveraged as many available sites on our line as possible to add spurs and siding tracks, which incrementally increased our overall capacity to handle rail cars,” he said. “This site in particular stood out because of its footprint and its location for a larger rail yard expansion that other sites under consideration could not accommodate.”
The facility will improve capacity, service and logistical efficiency for the Y&S Railroad’s current and future freight customers, according to the news release. The project will involve construction of a five-track yard with capacity for 220 cars and installation of approximately 15,000 feet of new track and six turnarounds, according to commission documents.
During the Nov. 14 meeting when the grant was awarded, Keener reported the rail line has experienced business growth over the past few years. That growth has come both with traditional customers to transloads and online receivers, as well as storage and transit customers, primarily serving “a large petrochemical manufacturing facility just on the other side of the border,” along with other customers related to the Marcellus Shale industry.
Keener also said his company is interested in working with Lake to River to market 10 to 30 acres of the approximately 70-acre site to businesses that might be interested in establishing brick-and-mortar operations in need of rail service.
“We feel like working with local, regional and state-level partners would be the best option to getting this in front of potential customers, potential job creators and industries that could locate here,” he said.
“This investment is important to the city of Youngstown’s industrial growth,” said Sarah Boyarko, vice president of economic development for Lake to River. “With the acquisition of this acreage, we’ll have additional rail services to market as well as a highly competitive development site. We are pleased that this investment was made in our market and look forward to partnering with Midwest & Bluegrass on future opportunities at the Lansingville Rail Park.”
Pictured at top: A map of the proposed Lansingville Yard expansion.