Back to life on the Omaha line

Ethanol: for some it's a loaded word, others a fighting word. But for the Union Pacific railroad system, in particular its St. Paul (MN) - Sioux City (IA) line (dubbed the "Omaha line"), ethanol has brought an otherwise dormant line back to life & in more ways than one. In short, it's the best word that UP wants to hear.

Prior to Minnesota promoting ethanol (& it has been doing so over the past decade), the Omaha line among others in this region were either dormant or on the verge of dying/becoming abandoned. Somehow, though, these lines stayed open & once ethanol entered into the picture, these lines took on new life like never before. Since taking over Chicago & North Western (C&NW) in 1996, UP has rebuilt & spruced up the lines listed below, not only giving them meaning & purpose in the burgeoning ethanol industry but also revitalizing their value in the process:

(1) Soon after taking over C&NW in 1996, according to Dave Haugh, "...UP installed 43 miles of welded rail and new bridges between Mankato, Minn., and Sibley, Iowa...
(2) ...In 2001, UP fixed the decrepit Fairmont Sub, a cutoff from Butterfield, Minn., to Mason City (Iowa), with welded rail to handle grain from expanding shuttle-loading elevators."

On the Omaha line, only one ethanol plant was operating back then. But how times have changed, & all the more so in Minnesota as plants have began popping up across these once-dying rail lines. Since 2004, plants have been made at Ashton, IA, Hanlontown, IA, and Lake Crystal, MN. But wait!! There's more: in 2005, a biodiesel plant opened up in 2005 at Brewster, MN & another ethanol plant will start operations just up the road at Heron Lake. The end result for UP's Omaha line? You guessed it right: More jobs, more traffic & plenty of upgrades galore to cope with the increased flow of rail traffic. And Union Pacific has been up to the task in terms of improving their rail yards & sidings on the Omaha line now that ethanol has made it big in this neck of the woods.

A lot of people, I take it, will harp on the downsides of ethanol all they wish. But for the folks at Union Pacific, they like the changes which they are seeing. Two otherwise dead-in-the -water lines (the Omaha line & Fairmont Sub) are once again abuzz with traffic left & right.

This isn't the only place in the Corn Belt to find change for the better. In fact, it's happening all over the place in this particular section of the Midwest & Union Pacific, of all the railroads in service, is at the top of their game in knowing how to revitalize & resuscitate once-breathless stretches of track back to life again. And have they ever!!