Iowa Northern recovers from 2008 flood
By Jean Caspers-Simmet
simmet@agrinews.com
Date Modified: 08/09/2010 3:31 PM
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WATERLOO, Iowa —Having access to federal stimulus funds to incorporate diesel emission reduction technology into its fleet is benefiting the environment and helping the bottom line, says Iowa Northern Railway president Dan Sabin.
"This has an important impact on a small company like the Iowa Northern," Sabin said. "We had budgeted about $3 million this year for fuel consumption. This program will help us save $500,000 per year in fuel. It also reduces the mechanical repair and inspection requirements that we would normally have with a locomotive."
Sabin said that by the end of 2010, Iowa Northern Railway Company will have recovered from the 2008 floods that cut the railroad in two when the Union Pacific railroad bridge in Waterloo was destroyed. The railroad also sustained heavy damage along its line.
"We've grown our business to the point where we'll be operating 78 percent more business on the Iowa Northern than we did in 2007, the last full year before the flood," Sabin said. "These slugs will allow us to move more freight and serve our customers in a much leaner and greener way."
Sabin said assistance from Waterloo and the Union Pacific allowed the Iowa Northern to get its Waterloo bridge back open and got the railroad to the point where it is making a full recovery.
"We're anxious to add the railroad slug program to this," Sabin said. "A lot of small companies get very nervous when you start looking at environmentally sound projects because it generally means lot of expense with no return, but this has an incredible return for us. The return on investment is so great that it is our goal to try to acquire four more slugs over the next year so we can continue this program."
Sabin is grateful to the EPA and the Iowa DNR for their support and willingness to award the project to the Iowa Northern.
"The support made the slug project possible," Sabin said.
Sabin hopes the EPA and DNR use Iowa Northern's slug program as a model and that it encourages small and large railroads to follow its lead.
The Iowa Northern ships 65 million bushels of corn, 20 million bushels of soybeans and just recently added oats to Quaker Oats in Cedar Rapids to the tune of 25 million bushels per year.
"Our growth has been dramatic," Sabin said. "With the new ADM plant just opening in Cedar Rapids, the need for corn in Cedar Rapids will double. They'll go from 165 million bushels annually in consumption to 300 to 320 bushels so you'll see nearly 1 million bushels of corn per day consumed in Cedar Rapids. We're quite anxious to be the main supplier of these commodities to Cedar Rapids."
Iowa Northern draws from 20 Iowa counties. Using Canadian Pacific origins, there are 10 counties in western Iowa and southern Minnesota that are shipping to Cedar Rapids over Iowa Northern. Other customers are Hawkeye Renewables in Shell Rock and Fairbank, Tyson Frozen Pork and John Deere Tractor Works in Waterloo.
"It's a very broad area," Sabin said.