SANTA FE, N.M. – The Union Pacific Railroad is undertaking a $20 million project at its Santa Teresa Intermodal Terminal and Refueling Station that will boost the capacity of operations in New Mexico, state officials and the railroad announced Friday. Here is a statement from the NM Economic Development Department:
The focus of the project is an additional block swap yard that will allow the company to add container blocks to passing trains faster and more efficiently. The improvement will mean more shipments and less down time for customers waiting for merchandise along the railroad’s 760-mile Sunset Corridor between El Paso and Los Angeles.
“We are growing our presence in New Mexico because New Mexico is a great partner,” said Ivan Jaime, Senior Director of Public Affairs for Union Pacific. "We anticipate this investment will have a positive economic impact in Southern New Mexico.”
"Union Pacific's expanded investment in New Mexico represents a gratifying confidence in our progress and potential," Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said. "We are open for business -- and we are ready to grow in the borderlands and beyond. Companies like Union Pacific recognize that, and I wholeheartedly applaud their commitment to high-quality service and growth here in our state."
"Union Pacific is a great partner with the state of New Mexico and it's a testament to our relationship that they have committed to expand in Southern New Mexico," said Cabinet Secretary Alicia J. Keyes of the state Economic Development Department. "We look forward to continuing to work with Union Pacific and to the economic growth this expansion will foster."
The original 2,200-acre intermodal facility opened in 2014 as a geographically strategic location that allows the railroad to sort and move cargo along its routes in 23 states. Many of the containers stored in Santa Teresa are loaded directly from factory floors then onto trucks that cross the Mexico border into the United States at the Santa Teresa or El Paso crossing. The containers are loaded by crane in Santa Teresa and then picked up by passing trains that deliver them to warehouses, manufacturing plants or retail locations across the United States or to other rail destinations.
Union Pacific employs more than 500 workers in the state in locations such as Santa Teresa, Lordsburg, Deming, Alamogordo, Vaughn, Tucumcari and beyond with an estimated payroll of $49 million. In 2018, almost 67,000 rail cars originated and terminated in New Mexico. Union Pacific has 618 miles of track in the state and the Santa Teresa facility has a current capacity for 225,000 container lifts.