The Alabama Southern Railroad will invest $9.8 million into a new railyard located near the Tuscaloosa Regional Airport.
The construction on the facility is expected to be completed by late Summer of 2024. The new railway is meant to ease traffic congestion from train crossings in West Tuscaloosa.
“That should give a lot of relief to that community there that have trains blocking their crossings each day,” said company sales director Cody Gilliland. “We think there's going to be a drastic change in the amount that trains are sitting on those tracks that will make the West Tuscaloosa community very excited.”
The Tuscaloosa County Economic Development Authority approved a tax abatement of over $530,000 dollars to incentivize Alabama Southern Railway’s project. TCEDA said it expects the project will contribute over $600,000 in taxes from direct spending of the eight new positions created by the project.
“The Alabama Southern Railroad’s additional rail yard means more jobs and the reduction of train traffic in West Tuscaloosa,” said Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox in a press release. “This project has required a great deal of planning and coordination, but the end result is well worth it for Tuscaloosa.”
The new railyard will increase the company’s car capacity from 300 to 600, resulting in more possibilities for economic growth in Tuscaloosa.
“This rail yard primarily will be used to just handle more of our growing customer traffic,” said Gilliland. “We've seen an uptick and volume rail traffic volumes since 2012 that I would call extraordinary. And you know, we have a very diverse and large customer base in Tuscaloosa, who has also seen growth over the past 10 or 12 years.”
Gilliland summed up the benefits of the new project: “This added capacity is also going to give Tuscaloosa, the area of Tuscaloosa, more ability to go after large scale manufacturing and industrial jobs.”
Construction on the railyard is expected to begin this summer.
