Eastern Railroad Discussion > assembly plants which truck vehicles to a RR not on site

Just curious which assembly plants have foregone new vehicle shipping via a railroad that directly serves them.

The GM Pickup plant in Fort Wayne trucks part of their output 20 miles to the Chicago, Fort Wayne & Eastern RR rather than shipping everything on the NS that serves the plant.

I believe GM's Orion Assembly in MI has gone many years without rail service that once existed. They even tore out the trackage it seems but they're now restoring it for rail service once again, probably to coincide with the changeover to Silverados and Denali EVs...

JG

Volvo in in Ridgeway SC is not rail served and has trucked to a rail load out near Columbia since opening in 2018.  State is finally building a 23 mile new line from CSX in Cross SC to plant.  The new $209 million railroad will be operated by Palmetto Railway as their Camp Hall sub.  Plant builds the Volvo XC60, Volvo EX90, and Polestar 3.  For you "On Patrol Live" fans, this is Berkely County SC. 

jgilmore Wrote:
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> I believe GM's Orion Assembly in MI has gone many
> years without rail service that once existed. They
> even tore out the trackage it seems but they're
> now restoring it for rail service once again,
> probably to coincide with the changeover to
> Silverados and Denali EVs...
>
> JG

You are correct but they will not be EV's.

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Chrysler's Windsor Ont plant trucks minivan to Livernois in Detroit for loading on railcars.

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What about the old gm plant in oklahoma city even though out of business curious who r if any rail road served it n who when n business.

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ATSF served the OKC GM plant

rww

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Ok thanks

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GM Grand River Assembly is not rail served (the previous Oldsmobile plant onsite was direct rail by CN). I assume they truck any rail rail loads to GM Delta Assembly a few miles down the road on the west side of Lansing, MI, also served by CN.

CSX’s New Boston MI ramp
Is not adjacent to any single assembly plant but is fed from several Detroit area facilities (I can’t remember which at this point).

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I'm not sure if they are still doing it, but the most notable one in my head is when Honda started trucking vehicles from its Lincoln, AL assembly plant down to Talladega to ship on CSX versus onsite NS.

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As mentioned before, Honda in Lincoln, AL trucked vehicles to the CSX to avoid NS who at one time served the plant. 
The Ford plant in Chicago (Explorers) does not have direct rail access and vehicles are driven to the NS ramp down the road or trucked to the BNSF ramp in Joliet.
Kia and Hyundai truck vehicles from plants in GA and AL to the NS at McCalla and Hapeville for certain routes. 
Mercedes in Charleston, SC trucks some vehicles to a ramp in Ladson (not a big one).
Some Toyota and GM product from Canada is trucked to Buffalo for rail shipment. 
Tacoma's for the US are trucked to San Diego and shipped out from there. 

There are some other pockets where vehicles are trucked in but these are mostly for additional volume that can't be handled by the plant serving RR.

I managed NS's automotive terminals for several years so was involved directly in most of the above items. 

Several of the large truck and bus electric battery plants in Georgia also has access.  I can recall that being listed as an asset in site selection.

mthidemann Wrote:
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> Kia and Hyundai truck vehicles from plants in GA
> and AL to the NS at McCalla and Hapeville for
> certain routes. 
>

Are you sure about that regarding Hyundai and Kia? I know the Kia plant rail outbound shipping lanes are setup based on BNSF and CSX auto ramp destinations.

ShortlinesUSA Wrote:
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> I'm not sure if they are still doing it, but the
> most notable one in my head is when Honda started
> trucking vehicles from its Lincoln, AL assembly
> plant down to Talladega to ship on CSX versus
> onsite NS.
>
> Posted from Android

And this is exactly why shippers do not want the NS+UP merger. The NS strangleholds will get stronger. Rates will increase and service will decrease.

The chemical and petroleum industries in places like Louisiana will be even more limited in their choices for rail. 

This is exactly what terminal railroads were set up to handle. Neutral carriers designed to connect shippers with multiple class 1 lines.

Does GM ship anything by rail from Fairfax in Kansas City? Plant made the last Chevy Sedan, the Malibu, through the 2025 model year. Now making a revived Bolt this year.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/02/26 07:50 by GP40.

I appreciate all the responses thus far to my inquiry,

I realize something that I had not thought about, and that was that some vehicles were trucked to other railroad facilities to access certain lanes. It was not a matter of the non-plant serving railroad taking all of the traffic.

ts1457 Wrote:
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> I realize something that I had not thought about,
> and that was that some vehicles were trucked to
> other railroad facilities to access certain lanes.
> It was not a matter of the non-plant serving
> railroad taking all of the traffic.

I suspect this has been going on for quite some time, perhaps the automaker gets a better rate due to less interchange time/fees to the other road somewhere else or if the loading place is not too far from the assembly point then maybe a better rate due to a longer haul from the other road or a faster direct route...

JG

The Corvette plant in Bowling Green Kentucky has a railroad and rail sidings into the facility, but i don't believe they ship out cars on the railroad. I believe someone had previously posted that they ship everything by truck to their destination

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