Northern Lines Railway to expand propane service

OREANDA-NEWS. April 24, 2015. Northern Lines Railway (NLR) expects to transport 1,500 railcars of propane in 2015.

NLR transported more than 1,000 railcars of propane in 2014, which was four times more than it handled in 2013. One-thousand railcars can hold the equivalent of about 714,000 bl of propane.

The company attributed the increased activity to the CHS and Wenner Gas Co partnership expansion of the Rockville propane terminal near St Cloud, Minnesota.

The \\$10mn expansion increased track capacity at the terminal to 57 loaded cars and 47 empty cars. NLR purchased another locomotive to accommodate the expanded capacity.

The Rockville terminal can unload 10 railcars at a time and has storage for 14,760 bl of product. The facility can fill six tanker cars per hour.

Propane-by-rail activity in Minnesota has increased since Kinder Morgan completed the Cochin pipeline reversal in mid-2014. The Cochin used to transport Canadian propane to the US midcontinent, but the line was repurposed to ship US diluent to western Canada.

NLR was formed by Anacostia Rail holdings in 2005 to operate BNSF-owned track in central Minnesota. Anacostia Rail holdings operates freight railroads in the US and handles 800,000 carloads per year.