9 August 2010

Canadian Pacific Building Transload Facility for Gas Industry in Taylor, Pa.

Two CP units rest in Taylor Yard, next to the signals at CPF 673 - 1 Feb 2009 Hank Rogers.

Taylor Yard Scranton Pennsylvania USA - Canadian Pacific is joining the procession of railroad facility developments to handle freight shipments for the area's emerging natural-gas drilling industry, the Times-Tribune reports. Canadian Pacific, based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, is developing a transload facility at its Taylor yard to process sand for Marcellus Shale natural gas development, CP spokesman Mike LoVecchio said.
 
Well-drilling companies use large volumes of sand and water at each well site to fracture rock and free gas for extraction.
 
"It looks like we will create about 10 jobs out of this transload facility," LoVecchio said. "The expectation is, it will move upwards of 30 rail cars of "frack sand" a week."
 
The company will hire full-time yard workers and materials handlers at Taylor yard to process the material, which will be trucked to drilling sites, LoVecchio said.
 
CP's venture follows recent gas-extraction developments at two area rail yards.
 
"There's a lot of railroads now that are putting in facilities," said Joe Gerdes, executive director of the Keystone State Railroad Association, a Harrisburg-based group that represents freight carriers and shortlines. "They have found carloads that they were not expecting from Marcellus. It's bringing in drills, it's bringing in pipe, its bringing in sand."
 
Last month, Linde Corp., a Honesdale-based utility and heavy construction contractor, opened a transload facility at a Carbondale yard in a joint venture with a Texas energy development services company. The two will develop and ship a clay-based compound that helps seal gas wells and extract drill cuttings. Linde invested about $500,000 in the facility and leases the property from the Pennsylvania Northeast Regional Rail Authority.
 
Last year, Reading and Northern Railroad, a Schuylkill County shortline, teamed up with a Warren County sand supplier to invest about $100,000 in a transload development at Coxton Yard, a former Conrail property in Duryea.
 
Canadian Pacific, which acquired Delaware & Hudson Railway's assets in 1992 through bankruptcy and has about 700 employees in Pennsylvania and New York State, sees possibilities for new business in the developing gas industry, LoVecchio said.
 
"It represents a terrific market opportunity for us," said LoVecchio, who declined to detail the railroad's investment or whether it has a partner in the development. "We are attempting to be nimble and respond to the market as the opportunities present themselves."
 
Opportunities will continue to grow as the gas industry matures, Gerdes predicted. "The freight is coming, one way or another," he said.