Downsized CSX cargo hub on track in Rocky Mount

CSX Corp. is back on track with plans to build a North Carolina rail cargo hub near the Virginia state line two years after the freight railroad company announced plans and seven months after reassessing them.

CSX and North Carolina officials outlined a project Thursday near Rocky Mount that would handle less than half the cargo volume than had been announced in 2016. CSX said it will invest less than previously announced, while more state money will go into site development and road construction.

The latest round of state figures show Edgecombe County has the second highest unemployment rate in the state, at 7 percent. It's neighbors, Nash, Halifax and Wilson counties, are not far behind, but the Carolina Connector could change that.

State and local boosters said the facility is poised to create as many as 1,300 jobs in the area as the Department of Transportation invests $118 million to develop the property and build roads.

Trains have been an economic engine for Rocky Mount since the pre-Civil War days and, given its prime spot on the Eastern Seaboard, it's worthy of a "railroad intermodal" site.

"I don't care what they call it, it's trains and trucks and ports interacting with each other. That's what's going to happen at the new facility," said Norris Tolson, president of the Carolinas Gateway Partnership.

The Edgecombe County hub will transfer cargo containers from trucks to trains for further transport. Last November, it appeared the project would be derailed because CSX was reassessing its business model and it was unclear how Rocky Mount would fit into the company's strategy.

Gov. Roy Cooper said the state kept the wheels turning.

"We continued to talk to CSX during this interim time, convincing them that this indermodel hub was important to their company and to the economy of our state," Cooper said.

"We've been preaching the fact that, sicne we're close to I-96 and U.S. 64, that it is a really good location to deliver goods to the ultimate customer," Tolson said.

The hub was originally targeted for Johnston County, but landowner opposition led to picking the current site.