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Minot hosts ND’s only intermodal operation

Minot hosts ND’s only intermodal rail facility

Jill Schramm/MDN Greg Oberting, president of Rail Modal Group Minot, speaks at a news conference Wednesday announcing new intermodal rail service in Minot. The empty rail cars behind him are ready to be filled before heading to the West Coast.

The first shipping containers arriving at Minot’s intermodal operation were on their way to nearby AGT Foods within hours of the announcement of the facility’s new operator Wednesday.

Minot Area Development Corp. introduced Rail Modal Group Minot as operator for the intermodal rail service in the industrial park in east Minot. In cooperation with BNSF Railway, RMG operates two other intermodal ramps in Fremont, Neb., and Amarillo, Texas.

Greg Oberting, president of RMG Minot, said the pace was quick in moving into Minot.

“But we were really, really optimistic about this. We have a lot of partnerships, other than AGT, and we have enough volume built to ship weekly train service out of this facility into the ports of Seattle, Washington, which is very critically important,” he said, “so that we can have a stable and consistent pipeline of supplied containers and weekly regular service to the clients.”

The operation gives options to producers and processors to ship their products worldwide rather than be captive to local and regional markets, Oberting said. He added the facility will benefit the environment in taking many long-haul trucks off the road. Instead products will travel by rail, which has a lower carbon footprint.

Randy Hauck, MADC chairman, said MADC knew upon discovering Oberting’s knowledge of logistics and shipping that RMG was the one it wanted to operate the intermodal facility. He added MADC will be approaching legislators and Minot’s MAGIC Fund for financial assistance.

“We’re going to need some help, but I’m absolutely convinced that we can put together a long-term package here to keep Greg here long term, and we’re going to have the best intermodal port in the United States, operating right here in Minot,” Hauck said.

The state has been working to gain access to intermodal service to reduce shipping costs for agricultural producers and other industries for about two decades. Minot’s facility will provide service to Seattle and Tacoma, Wash.

Representatives from the Northwest Seaport Alliance told MADC the new rail service will mean lower costs for export customers in the Great Plains and an opportunity to grow the market share and add jobs in the Puget Sound region of Washington.

The Minot facility isn’t expected to do much hiring itself as it starts up, but Eric Bartsch, division head for global food ingredients for AGT Foods, said there will be indirect job impact.

He said when his company looked at expansion in 2012, the development of an intermodal port was a critical factor in choosing to expand in Minot.

“We want to add value to those products. We want to identity-preserve those products. We want to create things like pasta, which we’re doing today. We want to create things like texturized protein. But in order to be successful in that area, you need an opportunity to move that logistically around the world, and containers are the one way, and really the only way, to move some of these materials from here to regions like Asia, Middle East, India. This is extremely critical and allows for companies like us to expand. It’s going to attract other companies in,” Bartsch said.

“This is going to be more impactful than I think a lot of people truly realize, not just to Minot, not just to northcentral North Dakota, but across all of North Dakota and across the Upper Midwest,” Minot Mayor Shaun Sipma said. “To have intermodal – a facility like this – to be able to come and have instant access to the Pacific Northwest, into the trade areas of the world, is going to be profound.”

Amy McBeth, regional director of public affairs for BNSF, said BNSF’s previous certification of the intermodal site makes it unique in North Dakota. It means the site is ready to go for companies looking for rail service, she said.

“It’s another example of Minot understanding the importance of rail transportation, and MADC in particular. It’s a big deal for the region, and we’re pleased to be able to provide that service,” she said.

The process of bringing intermodal to Minot was a collaborative effort of a number of groups. Among them were the governor’s office, congressional delegation, legislators from across the state, the North Dakota Trade Office, North Dakota departments of Commerce, Transportation and Agriculture, Bank of North Dakota, private industry and financial institutions, BNSF and the Northwest Seaport Alliance.

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