Regional rail hub on track

Staff photo Dave Requet, president of Midway Oil Co., describes plans for turning the former Rock Island Lines yards in Silvis into a railport/industrial park.

New jobs soon could be coming to the Quad-Cities by rail.

Plans for a new railport in Silvis were unveiled by developers earlier this month. They call for the construction of an intermodal (rail and truck) facility on a 133-acre parcel in Silvis that once contained switching yards for the former Rock Island Lines railroad.

The Quad City Railport should open by Sept. 1, according to the development group, RailTech Development LLC. RailTech includes several area investors including Dave Requet, president of Midway Oil Co., Tom Dalton of Ruhl & Ruhl Commercial Co., Bill and Mike Murphy of Murphy Brothers Construction and Jim, John and Bill Hass of the Valley Group.

Since the RailTech announcement, the Quad Cities Development Group has contacted companies interested in expanding to the Quad-Cities, said QCDG vice president Rob Lamb. Some companies may wait until the facility is running while others may want in on the ground floor, he said.

RailTech predicts the railport facility will create 500 new jobs. Adjacent industrial parks in Silvis and Carbon Cliff will create more employment. The facility will cost $12 million to $14 million. Developers hope the facility will become a major rail hub for rail users throughout the Midwest.

As electronic commerce grows, the problem for companies is not taking orders, but getting products to consumers on a timely basis, Mr. Lamb said. At some point, a distribution facility must be created to accept large volumes of merchandise and send it out as individual packages, he said.

The Quad-Cities area is within 300 miles of 34 million consumers, has good access to railroad lines and the interstate highway system, Mr. Lamb said. The size of the metropolitan area makes it easier to get trucks in and out than in larger cities like Minneapolis and Chicago, he said.

The planned railport probably will be a regional facility and likely would not serve Chicago or other big cities, said Clyde K. Walter, associate professor of transportation and logistics at Iowa State University in Ames.

Railroads like moving goods non-stop to large cities like Chicago and then transporting them by truck, even if it means backtracking, Mr. Walter said. A Quad-Cities facility would have to prove it can serve shippers. Its success will be determined by its quality of customer service, he said.

Plans call for the rail hub to be operated by C.H. Robinson Worldwide, which will operate under III Transportation of Coralville, Iowa. The company expects 600,000 deliveries a year to pass through the hub, a company spokesman said when the project was announced.

A company like C.H. Robinson being involved with the Quad-Cities project shows it has potential, Mr. Walter said.

The idea of the Quad-Cities rail facility is to provide better market access at a lower cost for businesses within 100 miles, said Dave Howland, vice president of rail for C.H. Robinson.

The Quad City Railport will be operated under Triple I Transportation, a subsidiary of C.H. Robinson. The company operates intermodal rail facilities West Liberty, Newton and Council Bluffs, Iowa, as well as Chicago and Peoria. It expects the Quad-Cities hub to be its largest.

Along with the railport, development of an adjoining 160-acre industrial park is planned for Carbon Cliff. The facility will have many spinoffs, including manufacturing, shipping, warehousing and distribution and maintenance, said Mr. Lamb.