At the Ports of Indiana Mount Vernon, two newly painted train engines sit on the track as barges slip behind them on the Ohio River.
The Ports of Indiana Mount Vernon handles 20 to 50,000 thousand railcars annually, containing corn, wheat, coal, ethanol, fertilizer, limestone, pig iron and several others.
This location opened in 1976 to barge and rail freight — which has grown ever since. This includes a $25 million investment in rail infrastructure in the past year.
On Tuesday, a news conference was held to celebrate a new partnership, and a renewed commitment to the Mount Vernon community.
This newly created partnership is called Mount Vernon Railroad and it’s between the Port of Indiana and rail company OmniTrax.
Starting now, OmniTrax will switch rail cars from rail company Evansville Western to connect cargo with the final local customers. These include customers in the energy, agriculture and automotive sectors.
Prior to this, a different company handled the rail switching.
Those new engines will do the heavy lifting at this location, named Power Paws and Wildcat Express by local elementary students.
Ports of Indiana CEO Jody Peacock said they’ve coined the term ‘mega-modal’ to describe the result of this partnership.
“… you've one of the largest private railroads in the country, tremendous economic development potential. You've got all the barges, rail trucks coming through here. It really is a mega-modal opportunity for economic development for this region.”
This port is the busiest and the largest with 600 acres of land they expect to develop as the port grows.
While located in Mount Vernon Peacock said this port serves greater southwest Indiana.
“So you've got cargo, you've got barges, you've got rail coming from all over the country, and this really is an epicenter for freight, for trade,” he said, mentioned the recent $25 million investment in rail and freight infrastructure on the site.
Mount Vernon Mayor Steve Loehr said such an investment says a lot to the Mount Vernon Community.
“It kind of shows the citizens, not only just in Mount Vernon, but I think in Posey County that the state is vested in growth or in this area,” Loehr said. “You know, $25 million is a lot of money. I think it pretty well states how serious they are.”
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