Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis
The Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis (reporting mark TRRA) is a Class III switching and terminal railroad that handles traffic in the St. Louis metropolitan area. It is co-owned by five of the six Class I railroads that reach the city.[1]
Present operation
The Terminal Railroad Association is owned by[2] BNSF Railway, Canadian National Railway (Illinois Central Railroad until 1999), CSX Transportation, Norfolk Southern Railway, and Union Pacific Railroad. All own one-seventh of the railroad except UP, which owns three-sevenths.
The Terminal Railroad also connects with the Canadian Pacific Kansas City.
The TRRA owns and operates the MacArthur and Merchants bridges, the two Mississippi River railroad crossings in the St. Louis metropolitan area. In 2022, the TRRA completed a $222 million rebuild of the 1889 Merchants Bridge.[3] In the same year, the TRRA began a $57.3 million renovation of the MacArthur Bridge that includes replacing the 1912 main span girders and rebuilding the Broadway truss in downtown St. Louis.[4]
The Association also owns and operates Madison Yard, the largest classification yard in the St. Louis region. The switching yard consists of 80 inbound, outbound, and holding tracks with a capacity of 2,200 cars.[5] The company is planning to expand Madison Yard to hold another 1,500 railcars, for a yard total of 4,000.[6]
The railroad operates 30 locomotives to move cars around the yard, deliver cars to local industries, and ready trains for departure.[5]
History
Wiggins Ferry Company
The railroad's predecessor companies in St. Louis date to 1797, when the town was still part of Spanish Upper Louisiana. James Piggott was granted a license to operate a ferry between St. Louis and Illinoistown (now East St. Louis, Illinois). In 1819, Piggott's heirs sold the ferry to Samuel Wiggins, who operated the service with eight horses until a steam-powered ferry took over in 1828.
In 1832, Wiggins sold the Wiggins Ferry Service and 800 acres (3.2 km2) of land in East St. Louis, including Bloody Island, to new owners, who began developing a rail yard on the Illinois property. In 1870, the ferry began porting rail cars across the river one car at a time until the 1874 completion of the Eads Bridge.[5]
When the Terminal Railroad was incorporated in 1889, railroads owned most of the Wiggins Ferry property. In 1902 when the Rock Island Line joined the Terminal Railroad, the ownership of the Wiggins Illinois property was complete.[5]
- Advertisement for the St. Louis and St. Clair Ferry, July 4, 1842
- Steamboat John Trendley, of the Wiggins Ferry Company, caught on an icy river, possibly during the ice gorge of 1887
- Deed of lease between Wiggins Ferry Company, Illinois, and Frederick Sebastian for a piece of land at the northern end of Bloody Island to be used as a boat yard, March 1, 1864
Terminal Railroad Association
The formation of the Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis grew out of an agreement orchestrated by Jay Gould in 1889 between predecessor entities of the Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis and six proprietary railroads. Those original railroads were:[5]
- Missouri Pacific Railroad
- St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway, later part of the Missouri Pacific
- Wabash Railroad, later part of the Norfolk and Western Railway
- Ohio and Mississippi Railroad, later part of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad
- Louisville and Nashville Railroad
- Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway, later part of the New York Central Railroad
The Association built Union Station, opening it in 1894. The station would close in 1978 when Amtrak moved to a temporary facility several hundred yards to the east.
In its early years, the Association was at odds with the St. Louis Merchants Exchange. The Exchange built the Eads Bridge but lost control to the Terminal Railroad. The Exchange then built the Merchants Bridge to keep the Terminal Railroad from having a monopoly. The Exchange then lost control of that bridge also to the Terminal Railroad.
The railroad's practice of charging a tariff to coal trains crossing the Mississippi River persuaded several industries to set up shop in Illinois rather than Missouri. The steelmaking town of Granite City, Illinois, was founded in 1896 to avoid the tariffs.[7]
In 1989, the TRRA traded the Eads Bridge to the City of St. Louis in exchange for the MacArthur Bridge.
Lines
The TRRA operates the following lines:
- Merchants Subdivision: Grand Avenue (BNSF/UP) via Union Station, Gratiot Street (UP), Poplar Street (UP), North Market Street (BNSF/NS), West Approach, Merchants Bridge, and "SH" to "WR" (KCS/NS/UP/Port Harbor Railroad)[8]
- Illinois Transfer Subdivision: "SH" via "CP" (NS), Willows (CSX/KCS), and Southern (NS) to Valley Junction (KCS/UP)
- MacArthur Bridge Subdivision: Gratiot Street (UP) via South Approach Junction (UP), MacArthur Bridge, North Approach Junction, and East Approach (Alton and Southern Railway) to Valley Junction (KCS/UP)
- North Belt Subdivision: West Approach via May Street (NS) and Carrie Avenue to Baden Yard (BNSF)
- West Belt Subdivision (Operation currently leased to West Belt Railway): Carrie Avenue to Rock Island Junction (Central Midland Railway)
- Eads Subdivision: North Approach Junction via "Q" (CSX/KCS/UP) to "CP"
Awards and recognition
For four years beginning in 2001, TRRA received the Gold E. H. Harriman Award for safety in the Switching and Terminal railroad class.[9] In 2015, 2017, and 2021 the TRRA was awarded American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association's Presidential Award for safety (most man hours of injury free operation). In 2020 the TRRA received the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association's Veteran Engagement Award.[10]
Short Line Railroad of the Year
Preceded by | Short Line Railroad of the Year 2020 | Succeeded by RJ Corman/Memphis Line |
References
- ^ "Frequently Asked Questions". www.terminalrailroad.com. Retrieved 2022-11-01.
- ^ "TRRA Owner Lines". www.terminalrailroad.com. Retrieved 2022-11-01.
- ^ "Merchants Bridge reopens after four-year $222M project". FOX 2. 2022-09-15. Retrieved 2022-11-01.
- ^ Hibbard, Matthew (2019-06-12). "TRRA Awarded $28.8 Million for MacArthur Bridge Rehabilitation". St. Louis Regional Freightway. Retrieved 2022-11-01.
- ^ a b c d e "TRRA History". www.terminalrailroad.com. Retrieved 2022-11-01.
- ^ "Priority Infrastructure Projects". St. Louis Regional Freightway. Retrieved 2022-11-01.
- ^ Made in USA: East St. Louis by Andrew J. Theising - Virginia Publishing (June 2003) ISBN 1-891442-21-X
- ^ This line passes through a tunnel between the Gateway Arch and the river.
- ^ Association of American Railroads (reprinted by Norfolk Southern Railway) (2006-05-16). "Railroads Set Another Employee Safety Record in 2005". Archived from the original on February 13, 2007. Retrieved 2006-05-24.
- ^ "Veterans Award".
External links
- Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis
- TRRA Trackage Map (PDF)
- Trainweb profile
- v
- t
- e
- A&R Terminal Railroad
- Ag Valley Railroad
- Alton & Southern Railway
- Baltimore & Ohio Chicago Terminal Railroad
- Belt Railway of Chicago
- Bloomer Shippers Connecting Railroad
- BNSF
- Burlington Junction Railway
- Canadian National
- Central Illinois Railroad
- Chicago Central & Pacific Railroad
- Chicago–Chemung Railroad
- Chicago, Fort Wayne & Eastern Railroad
- Chicago Port Railroad
- Chicago Rail Link
- Chicago South Shore & South Bend Railroad
- Chicago Terminal Railroad
- City of Rochelle Railroad
- Coffeen & Western Railroad
- CPKC
- Crab Orchard & Egyptian Railway
- CSX
- Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad
- Decatur Central Railroad
- Decatur & Eastern Illinois Railroad
- Decatur Junction Railway
- Eastern Illinois Railroad
- Effingham Railroad
- Evansville Western Railway
- Gateway Eastern Railway
- Grand Trunk Western Railroad
- Illinois Central Railroad
- Illinois & Midland Railroad
- Illinois Railway
- Illinois Western Railroad
- Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad
- Indiana Rail Road
- Iowa Interstate Railroad
- Joppa & Eastern Railroad
- Kankakee, Beaverville & Southern Railroad
- Kansas City Southern Railway
- Keokuk Junction Railway
- Lincoln & Southern Railroad
- Manufacturers' Junction Railway
- Manufacturers Railway
- Norfolk Southern
- Peoria & Pekin Union Railway
- Peru Industrial Railroad
- Pioneer Industrial Railway
- Port Harbor Railroad
- Riverport Railroad
- Shawnee Terminal Railway
- Soo Line Railroad
- South Chicago & Indiana Harbor Railway
- Southern Illinois & Missouri Bridge Company
- Tazewell & Peoria Railroad
- Terminal Railroad Association of St Louis
- Toledo, Peoria & Western Railway
- Union Pacific
- Vandalia Railroad
- Vermilion Valley Railroad
- Wisconsin Central
- Wisconsin & Southern Railroad
- Bulkmatic Railroad
- C&C Railroad
- Calumet Transload & Railroad
- Captain Mine
- Chicago Heights Terminal Transfer Railroad
- Chicago & Western Indiana Railroad
- DOT Rail Service
- FNG Logistics Company
- Joliet Junction Railroad
- Kaskaskia Regional Port District Railroad
- Mokena Illinois Railroad
- North American Industrial Railway
- Peabody Energy
- Peoria, Peoria Heights & Western Railroad
- Respondek Railroad Corporation
- Fox River Trolley Museum
- Illinois Railway Museum
- Monticello Railway Museum
- Silver Creek & Stephenson Railroad
- See also: Former carriers in Illinois
- List of United States railroads by political division