CLINTON, Ill. — Central Illinois will gain a new short line if the Surface Transportation Board OKs a filing dated Sept. 11, 2019, to lease a 10.7-mile section of the Illinois Central Railroad Charter Line. Motive Rail Inc., dba Illinois Terminal Belt, will serve two grain elevators, both Tate & Lyle Grain Inc. operations at Wapella and the end of the line in Heyworth, Ill.
The line will be start at a connection in Clinton, Ill., a former IC division point. Clinton is milepost 773.5 and the end point in Heyworth is 784.2.
Trains Newswire spoke by phone with Jay Respondek, vice president of operations for Motive Rail Inc., headquartered in Cape Girardeau, Mo. “The line hasn’t seen a train in over two years. Our main goal is to get Tate & Lyle up and running and moving railcars. With 105 car unit trains, obviously it’s an opportunity to get some business on the line and perhaps find new business looking ahead. In the future were hoping to do transloading, the only problem being there’s not any sidetracks on the line.
“We will be moving two locomotives to the line; we hope our startup date is in near the end of October. There is really only one small curve on the line, I think two locomotives will be able to handle the trains’’.
Motive Rail Inc., has rail operations in Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Michigan.