(Kingsbury, IN) - A longtime dream of Kingsbury Industrial Park being served by two major railroads and the potential for major job creation that could bring as a result is about to become reality as, recently, CSX train cars began partially entering the 8,000-acre park on a rail extension about one mile from its main line for the first time.
For years, Canadian National has provided service to Kingsbury Elevator on the far northern edge of the park beside U.S. 35. CSX and CN will be able to serve the entire park once the last two rail connections are made, possibly before the end of the month.
Matt Reardon, Director of Economic Development for La Porte County government, said the final rail connections will create a loop to allow both railroads to reach the entire grounds.
“It’s pretty exciting,” he said.
It’s taken a dozen or more years to work through a complicated web of legal issues, landowner disputes, financing, and other barriers to lay down all of the rail necessary to serve the entire park and potentially attract major employers.
“There are distribution companies, data center companies that are actively looking at Kingsbury,” Reardon said.
Reardon said there are also active discussions with NIPSCO to build a substation at the site to provide the amount of electricity the anticipated new companies would need to operate.
“NIPSCO gets it. They understand it and they’re working with us on it,” he said.
The rail was laid on the footprint of an old CSX line that once served the Kingsbury Ordnance Plant, which made explosives for the military during World War II.
Former La Porte County government attorney Shaw Friedman was involved in the process of bringing full-service rail to the park from the very beginning until last year.
“This has been a tremendous collaborative effort by a lot of folks in county government, both parties working together arm in arm to make this a reality. It’s a very exciting time,” he said.
Friedman also said everyone involved should be credited for not giving up when the task almost seemed impossible from the hold-ups encountered on what turned out to be a long, frustrating path.
“This is a great example of what happens when people put aside their differences, whether it’s political differences or anything else, to get a common goal,” he said.
Friedman also credited the state for its financial support to do things such as complete the rail connections.
“This is the culmination of a lot of work by a lot of people and I’m proud to have played a role in it,” he said.
Leigh Morris was involved with the rail project when he worked for the Indiana Economic Development Corporation and the Indiana Department of Transportation a few years after his term as mayor of La Porte was over in 2007. Morris said the major job creation potential is from the park now having access to rail shipments from all over the country.
“I salute those who finally got that done,” he said.
Morris said one of the difficult-to-jump hurdles was convincing CSX to run a connection from its main line into the park.
“They didn’t want to make the investment necessary and didn’t wish to disrupt their main line with another side connection, but they’ve been convinced that this is going to be good for them and I think it’ll be a very good thing for the Kingsbury industrial site,” he said.
