In January, the city plans to notify local businesses and the Genesee & Wyoming Railroad that the line is ready for freight trains serving local businesses.
City officials decided to move ahead with preparations for offering freight service on the line, having repaired a bridge on the west end of its line identified as unready for freight loads in a consultant’s study.
“Those repairs have been done. That bridge is ready for freight,” Councilman Stephen Kaiser said Monday.
About 550 short line railroads operate about 50,000 miles of track or nearly one third of the national railroad network, reporting operating revenues of about $32 million a year and 18,000 employees, according to the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association.
Genesee & Wyoming (G&W) is one of the nation’s biggest short-line operators in Ohio. The railroad offers freight service on a dozen lines from Monroe to Mason to Middletown, reaching on to Pennsylvania, Michigan, Indiana and Kentucky.
In Lebanon, freight service is seen as a way to offset the costs of the tourist service through fees to users and grants available to freight line operators - not those with tourist trains on their lines.
The city’s study, done by Stone Consulting, based in Pennsylvania, identified a handful of businesses with or near access to the line running into the city from Hageman Crossing, where the railroad from Monroe splits - one line headed south to Mason, the other north to Lebanon.
“While it is apparent that for whatever reason, the Lebanon branch customers have not been approached for rail freight service for some time, this would appear to be by far the best ‘long term’ solution for the entire rail situation and ongoing investment and maintenance for the Lebanon line,” according to the study completed this year for the city.
The tour train operator said his company has coexisted with freight trains on other area lines.
The city and users still need to work out arrangements with G&W.
Earlier this year, Damian Snyder, plant manager for the Trupointe Cooperative in Lebanon, told the city consultant that his company would be interested in shipping fertilizer, stone and salt on the local short line, according to the report.
“Mr. Snyder did not know rail was still available,” according to the study.
Snyder could not be reached Monday.
The city also hopes to boost the value of commercial property available along existing rail lines near U.S. 42.
“Developing freight rail makes on-line industrial customers more competitive, opens new markets, and stabilizes or increases local employment. Industrial sites with access to short-line railroads are far preferred over sites without them, and this current situation puts Lebanon at a disadvantage to many communities including Mason. Growing sufficient commercial freight traffic on the line that it becomes attractive to G&W,” according to the study.
The city is also exploring the possibility of extending the rail into an industrial park near the existing line or setting up a transloading facility along the line, where trucks could on and offload freight onto freight cars, Kaiser said.
With an eight-year commitment on the tourist train, more attention can be focused on developing the freight option.
“I definitely support the multi-use for the tracks,” Mayor Amy Brewer said. “Let’s see if all the moving parts come together.”
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