Railway Age magazine has awarded the Indiana Rail Road its 2018 Regional Railroad of the Year award.
Editor-in-Chief William C. Vantuono said the railroad was chosen due to its success at expanding its non-coal traffic base through an aggressive growth and diversification strategy.
INRD was created in 1986 go take over a former Illinois Central branch line whose primary commodity was coal used by the Harding Street generating plant of Indianapolis Power & Light.
The power plant has since been transformed into using natural gas, thus causing a major loss of traffic for INRD.
Another setback came when a Duke Energy power plant in Terre Haute, Indiana, and a plant that produced synthetic gas from coal both closed.
INRD has compensated for the loss of coal traffic by expanding other sources of business, including creating an alliance with Canadian National to move intermodal traffic.
The railroad also opened a warehouse and cross-dock with Indianapolis-based Venture Logistics and rail-to-truck transload facilities in Indianapolis, southwest Indiana and Illinois.
It is second time that INRD has received a regional railroad of year award from Railway Age, the first having come in 2012.
Tags: awards, Indiana Rail Road, Indiana regional railroads, Indiana short line railroads, railroad of the year awards, Railway Age, regional railroads
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