FORT WORTH, Texas — BNSF Railway Co. has introduced its new Memphis Intermodal Facility to customers, community and state leaders during the facility’s grand opening ceremony.
BNSF’s Memphis Intermodal Facility is now fully operational after a $200 million expansion and rebuilding. BNSF’s newest intermodal facility will double BNSF’s lift capacity in the Memphis market and improve efficiency while also reducing emissions and helping to improve air quality.
The BNSF Memphis Intermodal Facility spans 185 acres and will have the capacity to handle 1 million lifts per year at full build out. The facility is equipped with eight wide-span, electric, rail-mounted gantry cranes, which produce zero emissions on site and will significantly reduce the number of hostler trucks needed to move containers within the yard.
The new Memphis Intermodal Facility also features a streamlined automated gate system for trucks as they enter and exit the Memphis Intermodal Facility, which uses digital cameras to record images of containers, chassis and tractors. Drivers are also identified using a biometric system. These enhancements have increased security, while improving throughput, reducing truck idling time and emissions by 50 percent.
“BNSF greatly appreciates the support of all of the political and business leaders who worked with us to make this day possible. That support is an important part of the reason why Memphis has developed into one of the most strategic transportation hubs in the Southeastern U.S.,” said John Lanigan, executive vice president and Chief Marketing Officer for BNSF. “BNSF’s significant investment in this new facility will not only make this one of the most efficient and environmentally-friendly intermodal facilities in the country, it will also help improve Memphis’s position in the global supply chain by offering our customers more capacity and service options.”
Customers, community and state leaders, and other BNSF guests were offered tours of all of the facility’s advanced technologies and design features from the streamlined in-gate process through the loading and unloading of containers by the wide-span electric cranes.
