The Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis is a Class III

switching and terminal railroad A switching and terminal railroad is a freight railroad company whose primary purpose is to perform local switching services or to own and operate a terminal facility. Switching is a type of operation done within the limits of a yard. It genera ...

that handles traffic in the

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

, metropolitan area. It is co-owned by five of the six

Class I railroad In the United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, st ...

s that reach the city.

Present operation

The Terminal Railroad Association is owned by BNSF Railway, Canadian National Railway (

Illinois Central Railroad The Illinois Central Railroad , sometimes called the Main Line of Mid-America, was a railroad in the Central United States, with its primary routes connecting Chicago, Illinois, with New Orleans, Louisiana, and Mobile, Alabama. A line also c ...

until 1999), CSX Transportation, Norfolk Southern Railway, and

Union Pacific Railroad The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...

. All own one-seventh of the railroad except UP, which owns three-sevenths. The Terminal Railroad also connects with the

Kansas City Southern Railway The Kansas City Southern Railway Company is an American Class I railroad. Founded in 1887, it operates in 10 midwestern and southeastern U.S. states: Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and ...

. The Canadian Pacific Railway is the only Class I railroad that does not reach the St. Louis area. The TRRA owns and operates the MacArthur and

Merchants A merchant is a person who trades in commodities produced by other people, especially one who trades with foreign countries. Historically, a merchant is anyone who is involved in business or trade. Merchants have operated for as long as industry ...

bridges, the two

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it fl ...

railroad crossings in the St. Louis metropolitan area. In 2022, the TRRA completed a $222 million rebuild of the 1889 Merchants Bridge. 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 Broadway

truss A truss is an assembly of ''members'' such as beams, connected by ''nodes'', that creates a rigid structure. In engineering, a truss is a structure that "consists of two-force members only, where the members are organized so that the assembl ...

in downtown St. Louis. The Association also owns and operates Madison Yard, the largest

classification yard A classification yard (American and Canadian English (Canadian National Railway use)), marshalling yard ( British, Hong Kong, Indian, Australian, and Canadian English (Canadian Pacific Railway use)) or shunting yard (Central Europe) is a railway ...

in the St. Louis region. The switching yard consists of 80 inbound, outbound, and holding tracks with a capacity of 2,200 cars. The company is planning to expand Madison Yard to hold another 1,500 railcars, for a yard total of 4,000. The railroad operates 30 locomotives to move cars around the yard, deliver cars to local industries, and ready trains for departure.

History

Wiggins Ferry Company

The railroad's predecessor companies in St. Louis date to 1797, when the town was still part of Spanish

Upper Louisiana Upper may refer to: * Shoe upper or ''vamp'', the part of a shoe on the top of the foot * Stimulant, drugs which induce temporary improvements in either mental or physical function or both * ''Upper'', the original film title for the 2013 found fo ...

. James Piggott was granted a license to operate a ferry between St. Louis and Illinoistown (now

East St. Louis, Illinois East St. Louis is a city in St. Clair County, Illinois. It is directly across the Mississippi River from Downtown St. Louis, Missouri and the Gateway Arch National Park. East St. Louis is in the Metro-East region of Southern Illinois. Once a b ...

). 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 of land in East St. Louis, including Bloody 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 the

Eads Bridge The Eads Bridge is a combined road and railway bridge over the Mississippi River connecting the cities of St. Louis, Missouri and East St. Louis, Illinois. It is located on the St. Louis riverfront between Laclede's Landing, to the north, and ...

. When the Terminal Railroad was incorporated in 1889, railroads owned most of the Wiggins Ferry property. In 1902 when the

Rock Island Line "Rock Island Line" is an American folk song. Ostensibly about the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad, it appeared as a folk song as early as 1929. The first recorded performance of "Rock Island Line" was by inmates of the Arkansas Cummins ...

joined the Terminal Railroad, the ownership of the Wiggins Illinois property was complete. File:Advertisment for the St. Louis and St. Clair Ferry, July 4, 1842.jpg, Advertisement for the St. Louis and St. Clair Ferry, July 4, 1842 File:Steamboat John Trendley caught on an icy river, possibly during the ice gorge of 1887.jpg, Steamboat John Trendley, of the Wiggins Ferry Company, caught on an icy river, possibly during the ice gorge of 1887 File:Deed of lease between Wiggins Ferry Company, Illinois, and Frederick Sebastian for a piece of land at the northern end of Bloody Island to be used as a boat yard, March 1, 1864.jpg, Deed of lease between Wiggins Ferry Company, Illinois, and Frederick Sebastian for a piece of land at the northern end of Bloody Island to be used as a boat yard, March 1, 1864

Terminal Railroad Association

The formation of the Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis grew out of an agreement orchestrated by

Jay Gould Jason Gould (; May 27, 1836 – December 2, 1892) was an American railroad magnate and financial speculator who is generally identified as one of the robber barons of the Gilded Age. His sharp and often unscrupulous business practices made him ...

in 1889 between predecessor entities of the Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis and six proprietary railroads. Those original railroads were: *

Missouri Pacific Railroad The Missouri Pacific Railroad , commonly abbreviated as MoPac, was one of the first railroads in the United States west of the Mississippi River. MoPac was a Class I railroad growing from dozens of predecessors and mergers. In 1967, the railroad ...

* St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway, later part of the Missouri Pacific *

Wabash Railroad The Wabash Railroad was a Class I railroad that operated in the mid-central United States. It served a large area, including track in the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, and Missouri and the province of Ontario. Its primary co ...

, later part of the Norfolk and Western Railway *

Ohio and Mississippi Railroad The Ohio and Mississippi Railway (earlier the Ohio and Mississippi Rail Road), abbreviated O&M, was a railroad operating between Cincinnati, Ohio, and East St. Louis, Illinois, from 1857 to 1893. The railroad started in 1854 and paralleled the ...

, later part of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad * Louisville and Nashville Railroad * Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway, later part of the

New York Central Railroad The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Mid ...

The Association built

Union Station A union station (also known as a union terminal, a joint station in Europe, and a joint-use station in Japan) is a railway station at which the tracks and facilities are shared by two or more separate railway companies, allowing passengers to ...

, opening it in 1894. The station would close in 1978 when

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada ...

moved to a temporary facility several hundred yards to the east. In its early years, the Association was at odds with the St. 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 of

Granite City, Illinois Granite City is a city in Madison County, Illinois, United States, within the Greater St. Louis metropolitan area. The population was 27,549 at the 2020 census, making it the third-largest city in the Metro East and Southern Illinois regions, ...

, was founded in 1896 to avoid the tariffs. In 1989, the TRRA traded the

to the City of St. Louis in exchange for the MacArthur Bridge.

Lines

The TRRA operates the following lines: *Merchants Subdivision: Grand Avenue (BNSF/UP) via

, Gratiot Street (UP), Poplar Street (UP), North Market Street (BNSF/NS), West Approach, Merchants Bridge, and "SH" to "WR" (KCS/NS/UP/ Port Harbor Railroad) *Illinois Transfer Subdivision: "SH" via "CP" (NS), Willows (CSX/KCS), and Southern (NS) to Valley Junction (KCS/UP) *MacArthur Bridge Subdivision: Gratiot Street (UP) via South Approach Junction (UP), MacArthur Bridge, North Approach Junction, and East Approach (

Alton and Southern Railway The Alton and Southern Railway is a switching railroad in the Greater St. Louis area in Illinois. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Union Pacific Railroad. Overview The Alton and Southern ''Railroad'' was formed in 1910, and in 1913 it ...

) to Valley Junction (KCS/UP) *North Belt Subdivision: West Approach via May Street (NS) and Carrie Avenue to Baden Yard (BNSF) *West Belt Subdivision (Operation currently leased to West Belt Railway): Carrie Avenue to Rock Island Junction ( Central Midland Railway) *Eads Subdivision: North Approach Junction via "Q" (CSX/KCS/UP) to "CP"

Awards and recognition

For four years beginning in 2001, TRRA received the Gold E. H. Harriman Award for safety in the Switching and Terminal railroad class. 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.

Short Line Railroad of the Year

References

External links

Terminal Railroad Association of St. LouisTRRA Trackage Map (PDF)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Terminal Railroad Association Saint Louis Illinois railroads Missouri railroads Economy of St. Louis Rail in St. Louis Organizations based in Missouri Switching and terminal railroads Railway companies established in 1889 1889 establishments in Missouri