The first loaded UP and former Chicago and North Western coal train departed the region in 1984 and traveled over what was a brand new 107-mile rail line built between Joyce, Nebraska, and Shawnee Junction, Wyoming. The first SPRB shipment went from North Antelope, Wyoming, to Newark, Arkansas.
C&NW merged with UP in 1995.
The rail shipper has had many other milestones in the SPRB along the way, including the 100,000th train on March 17, 2001, and 200,000th on May 10 of this year.
"Capital investment in our coal corridor clearly has paid dividends for our customers over the past 25 years and has brought abundant, low-cost, low-sulfur coal to US electrical power plants,” UP vice-president and general manager of energy Doug Glass said, pointing out that one rail car of coal can generate enough electricity for more than 20 homes for a year.
Over the years, the line has seen many capital improvements. After four years of construction, a 108-mile third main line track between North Platte and Gibbon, Nebraska, was completed in 1999.
Additionally, a second main track between Gibbon, Nebraska, and Marysville, Kansas, was finished in 2000, wrapping up a four-year project. UP began efforts the same year to construct 37 miles of second main line track on its line between South Morrill, Nebraska, and Shawnee, Wyoming, which included 24 bridges.
Today, the company averages more than 30 trains per day from the SPRB at an average train load of about 15,500 tons.
"SPRB coal volume has increased 11 per cent annually between 1985 and 2008," Glass said.
"Demand for coal is off this year due to the global recession, lower demand for metallurgical coal and reduced industrial output. However, Union Pacific is delivering SPRB coal to a recently constructed power plant in Nebraska and expects to deliver SPRB coal to a new plant currently under construction in Texas [and] another coal-fired power plant planning to burn SPRB coal is under construction in Arkansas.”
