At the Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis, a capacity upgrade is a catalyst for growth
9/10/2026
By Bridget Dean, Senior Associate Editor
The Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis (TRRA) is set to open its expanded Madison Yard in late October or early November. Post expansion, the hump yard will offer capacity of 3,000 cars, up from the current 2,500 cars.
As one of the largest switching and terminal railroads in the United States, the TRRA operates about 170 miles of railroad infrastructure and the two rail bridges across the Mississippi River. It connects with all six Class Is and serves 70 local industries, resulting in a daily processing throughput of 2,400 cars. The railroad dispatches about 115 trains over its main lines every day.
The increased capacity will help the railroad remain flexible to varying traffic patterns, and the TRRA’s customers have asked for more car spots, says Matt Whitney, TRRA’s director of strategic planning and business development,
"Rather than waiting for the network to become constrained, we're getting ahead of it," Whitney says. "We've discussed through the years what expansion looks like, and last year we took these proposals to our board."
The TRRA’s owners — Union Pacific Railroad, BNSF Railway, CSX, CN and Norfolk Southern Railway — supported the project, Whitney adds. The expansion will add about 35,000 feet of track in a large U-shape on the west end of Madison Yard, on former farmland. Once work is completed, the expansion will increase storage-in-transit (SIT) capacity and create additional flexibility for unexpected increases in traffic.
As a terminal switching railroad, the TRRA handles trains of varying lengths, but the Madison Yard is over 100 years old and currently only has tracks ranging from 2,500-3,000 feet in length. The expansion will allow TRRA crews to get longer trains off the mainline and into the yard, opening spaces in the current inbound yard for SIT storage.
“[The expansion] has the flexibility to be used not only for SIT. It could be used for yarding trains as well, so it gives our guys an extra tool in their toolbox,” Whitney says.
A growth pattern
The company is investing $15 million in the farm expansion, TRRA’s largest capacity project in Whitney’s 27 years with the railroad. And, TRRA officials are already discussing future development around Madison Yard that could support another 750-1,000 rail cars.
What future yard development phases look like will depend on what TRRA customers ask for, Whitney says.
“A lot of our storage and transit customers also look for transload opportunities. So, we could actually add transload capabilities as part of phase two or phase three,” he says. “We haven’t really closed the door on what that’s going to look like. We’re very open minded.”
TRRA has room to grow, with about 350 acres of property that could be used for industrial development, SIT or other rail needs. The railroad is actively seeking a partner to develop property on the Mississippi River and plans in the next few years to add a third mainline outside Madison Yard to accommodate traffic coming out of the Valley Junction.
“We are in a growth pattern right now. We are looking to grow not only with our Class I partners, but anyone else in the industry — manufacturers, rail shippers — looking to expand and need reliable service,” Whitney says. “We’re actively investing in the railroad.”
