Norfolk Southern Assists Wide Range of Companies With Industrial Development Efforts During 2004

NORFOLK, Va., March 15 -- Norfolk Southern Corporation participated in the location of 67 new industries and provided support for the expansion of 34 additional industries along its rail lines in 2004.

The new plants and expansions represent an investment of approximately $1.5 billion by Norfolk Southern customers and are expected to create an estimated 4,300 jobs in the railroad's territory and eventually generate more than 100,000 carloads of new rail traffic annually.

The largest projects coming on line in 2004 were the expansion of an automobile assembly plant for Toyota Motor Manufacturing Indiana at Princeton, Ind., and the development of a new coke production facility for SunCoke Company at Haverhill, Ohio.

"With more than 2,000 available rail-served sites, Norfolk Southern was able to provide industrial development assistance to more than 100 companies in 19 states involved in warehousing and distribution as well as in manufacturing paper, building and agricultural products and automotive parts, steel and plastic," said Larry Collingwood, assistant vice president industrial development. "We also saw an increase in the number of energy- related projects with the expansion of several power plants across our service territory."

During the past 10 years, Norfolk Southern's industrial development department has participated in the location or expansion of 1,109 industries, which invested $25 billion and created more than 60,000 jobs in the territory served by the railroad.

Norfolk Southern works with state and local economic development authorities on projects involving site location and development of infrastructure to connect customers to its rail system and provides free and confidential plant location services, including site layout, engineering and logistics assistance. Offices are located in Atlanta; Birmingham, Ala.; Columbia, S.C.; Columbus, Ohio; Detroit; Harrisburg, Pa.; Knoxville, Tenn.; Indianapolis, Ind.; Norfolk; Philadelphia; Raleigh, N.C.; Roanoke, Va., and St. Louis.

Norfolk Southern Corporation is one of the nation's premier transportation companies. Its Norfolk Southern Railway subsidiary operates approximately 21,300 route miles in 22 states, the District of Columbia and Ontario, Canada, serving every major container port in the eastern United States and providing superior connections to western rail carriers. NS operates the most extensive intermodal network in the East and is North America's largest rail carrier of automotive parts and finished vehicles.

Company News On-Call: http://www.prnewswire.com/comp/626525.html