Rail News: Class Is
EGT to build BNSF-served unit train loading facility in Montana

Last month, EGT L.L.C. announced plans to build a high-capacity shuttle train loading facility in Carter, Mont., along a BNSF Railway Co. line. The project is slated for completion by summer 2012.

Along with similar facilities under construction in Chester and Kintyre Flats, Mont., on BNSF lines, the Carter unit-train loader will ensure that the company can efficiently transport quality wheat from a key growing region to the firm’s grain export terminal in Longview, Wash., which is scheduled to open in fall, said officials at EGT — a joint venture between Bunge North America, ITOCHU and STX Pan Ocean — in a prepared statement.

All three facilities are designed to load a 110-car unit train in less than 10 hours and store about 800,000 bushels of grain.

The three high-speed facilities “will enable us to create a seamless supply chain from farms to the end-users in Asia and Central America,” said EGT President and Chief Executive Officer Larry Clarke.