 A TRRA locomotive | |
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | St. Louis |
| Reporting mark | TRRA |
| Locale | Illinois andMissouri |
| Dates of operation | 1889–present |
| Technical | |
| Track gauge | 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)standard gauge |
| Other | |
| Website | terminalrailroad |
TheTerminal Railroad Association of St. Louis (reporting markTRRA) is a Class IIIswitching and terminal railroad that handles traffic in theSt. Louis metropolitan area. It is co-owned by five of the sixClass I railroads that reach the city.[1]
The Terminal Railroad Association is owned by[2]BNSF Railway,Canadian National Railway (Illinois Central Railroad until 1999),CSX Transportation,Norfolk Southern Railway, andUnion Pacific Railroad. All own one-seventh of the railroad except UP, which owns three-sevenths.
The Terminal Railroad also connects with theCanadian Pacific Kansas City.
The TRRA owns and operates theMacArthur andMerchants bridges, the twoMississippi River railroad crossings in the St. Louis metropolitan area. In 2022, the TRRA completed a $222 million rebuild of the 1889 Merchants Bridge.[3] In the same year, the TRRA began a $57.3 million renovation of the MacArthur Bridge that includes replacing the 1912 main span girders and rebuilding the Broadwaytruss in downtown St. Louis.[4]
The Association also owns and operates Madison Yard, the largestclassification yard in the St. Louis region. The switching yard consists of 80 inbound, outbound, and holding tracks with a capacity of 2,200 cars.[5] The company is planning to expand Madison Yard to hold another 1,500 railcars, for a yard total of 4,000.[6]
The railroad operates 30 locomotives to move cars around the yard, deliver cars to local industries, and ready trains for departure.[5]
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The railroad's predecessor companies in St. Louis date to 1797, when the town was still part of SpanishUpper Louisiana. James Piggott was granted a license to operate a ferry between St. Louis and Illinoistown (nowEast St. Louis, Illinois). In 1819, Piggott's heirs sold the ferry to Samuel Wiggins, who operated the service with eight horses until a steam-powered ferry took over in 1828.
In 1832, Wiggins sold the Wiggins Ferry Service and 800 acres (3.2 km2) of land in East St. Louis, includingBloody Island, to new owners, who began developing a rail yard on the Illinois property. In 1870, the ferry began porting rail cars across the river one car at a time until the 1874 completion of theEads Bridge.[5]
When the Terminal Railroad was incorporated in 1889, railroads owned most of the Wiggins Ferry property. In 1902 when theRock Island Line joined the Terminal Railroad, the ownership of the Wiggins Illinois property was complete.[5]
The formation of the Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis grew out of an agreement orchestrated byJay Gould in 1889 between predecessor entities of the Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis and six proprietary railroads. Those original railroads were:[5]
The Association builtUnion Station, opening it in 1894. The station would close in 1978 whenAmtrak moved to a temporary facility several hundred yards to the east.
In its early years, the Association was at odds with theSt. Louis Merchants Exchange. The Exchange built the Eads Bridge but lost control to the Terminal Railroad. The Exchange then built the Merchants Bridge to keep the Terminal Railroad from having a monopoly. The Exchange then lost control of that bridge also to the Terminal Railroad.
The railroad's practice of charging a tariff to coal trains crossing the Mississippi River persuaded several industries to set up shop in Illinois rather than Missouri. The steelmaking town ofGranite City, Illinois, was founded in 1896 to avoid the tariffs.[7]
In 1989, the TRRA traded theEads Bridge to the City of St. Louis in exchange for the MacArthur Bridge.
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The TRRA operates the following lines:
For four years beginning in 2001, TRRA received the GoldE. H. Harriman Award for safety in the Switching and Terminal railroad class.[9] In 2015, 2017, and 2021 the TRRA was awarded American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association's Presidential Award for safety (most man hours of injury free operation). In 2020 the TRRA received the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association's Veteran Engagement Award.[10]
| Preceded by | Short Line Railroad of the Year 2020 | Succeeded by RJ Corman/Memphis Line |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
