Page 14 - World Trade Center - 2024

Joseph R. Biden, Jr. Railroad Station
COURESTY OF AMTRAK
DELAWARE IS A NEXUS FOR
Passenger and Commercial Rail
By Tina Irgang Leaderman
major ports, airports and roads —
Delaware is positioned not only near
it is also an integral part of both
passenger and cargo rail networks.
On the passenger side, Wilmington’s
Joseph R. Biden, Jr. Railroad Station is
one of Amtrak’s busiest ones. Nine Amtrak
routes stop at the station, including the
high-speed Acela service. One route, the
Northeast Regional, also stops in Newark,
Delaware.
“Delaware is host to a portion of the
Northeast Corridor (NEC), Amtrak’s most
heavily traveled line, and the state’s support
for our service is critical to connecting
metropolitan areas on the East Coast,” said
Beth Toll, a senior public relations manager
for Amtrak. “The territory served by the
NEC is 2% of U.S. territory but responsible
for producing 20% of the nation’s GDP.”
Wilmington is also home to Amtrak’s
Consolidated National Operations Center,
from which Amtrak’s national operations
are controlled. Maintenance facilities in
Wilmington and Bear, Delaware, maintain,
repair and overhaul cars and electric loco-
motives used in the NEC.
As for commercial rail, major oper-
ators like CSX and Norfolk Southern
(NS) have a significant presence in Dela-
ware as well. CSX operates the TRANSFLO
terminal in Wilmington and maintains
nearly 130 miles of track in the state,
carrying commodities such as consumer
products, automobiles, food and agri-
culture products, and coal.
NS operates 82 miles of track, serv-
ing Newark, Wilmington and Delaware
City as well as the Port of Wilmington. In
2023 alone, NS transported enough barley
through Delaware to meet the annual
barley feed needs of 10,000 cattle, and
enough crushed limestone to build more
than 14,000 driveways.
Convenient Rail Connections
in Downstate Delaware
While both CSX and NS limit their opera-
tions to New Castle County, the Delmarva
Central Railroad serves the downstate
counties of Kent and Sussex as well.
Carload Express has operated the
Delmarva Central Railroad under a lease
agreement with NS since 2016. The service
connects to the NS system in the New
Castle County community of Porter and
traverses all three Delaware counties along
multiple lines, connecting to towns such as
Harrington, Dover, Clayton, Seaford, Laurel,
Delmar, Milford, Georgetown, Indian River,
Frankford and others.
“We really pride ourselves on provid-
ing tailored rail solutions to customers
who need to move a lot of material effi-
ciently,” said Cliff Grunstra, executive vice
president and chief commercial officer at
Carload Express. “We move around 30,000
rail cars a year in conjunction with NS.”
Moving the same amount of cargo by truck
would require roughly 240,000 roundtrips,
which equates to 650 trucks a day, he said.
Customers of the Delmarva Central
Railroad include the major poultry oper-
ations of the Delmarva peninsula, such
“We really pride ourselves on
providing tailored rail solutions
to customers who need to move a
lot of material efficiently.”
– Cliff Grunstra, Executive VP and
Chief Commercial Officer, Carload Express
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