New intermodal ramp set to open in September in Burbank

By Sara Schilling sara@tcjournal.biz

A new intermodal ramp in Burbank that’s billed as bringing increased transportation capacity via rail and other benefits is on track to open in September.

The ramp – which isn’t the freewaystyle ramp you may be picturing, but instead a logistics facility that will allow goods to be transferred between trucks and rail – is called Tiger Tri-Cities Logistics Center.

It’s owned by the Kansas-based Tiger Cool Express.

The facility will “work with city, county and port officials in Eastern Washington, integrating the exporting and importing business to benefit the region,” the company said in a statement.

The facility will help growers by lowering their costs, help the environment by taking truck miles off the road and reducing emissions, and position the area to become a major transportation hub, company officials have said. It initially will open up routes to Seattle and Tacoma docks and as far east as Chicago and beyond, and service could expand in the future to markets such as the I-5 corridor and Mexico, they’ve said.

Officials opened up the intermodal ramp for a media day in April ahead of its debut.

Scores of reporters and others toured the facility, watching demonstrations of how containers will be moved between trucks and trains, and hearing more about the benefits of the facility.

“(Say) I’m an exporter, and I’m saving $300, $400, $500 on getting my container to the Port of Tacoma (by using rail), that may be the difference between making the sale and not making the sale or losing money or making money on that year’s crop. It’s a big, big piece. And then we’ll be taking thousands of trucks off the road, we’ll be generating carbon credits that will help cap and trade,” said Ted Prince, chief strategy officer and co-founder of Tiger Cool Express, in an interview.

The logistics facility will create about 100 direct jobs, plus inspire others, Prince said.

“(Intermodal ramps) are magnets for job creators. If we become the distribution hub that I believe we will, you’ll see all kinds of facilities around here hiring thousands and thousands of people,” he said, referring to warehouses and distribution centers.

The facility, which includes the 200,000-square-foot former Union Pacific Railroad Cold Connect warehouse and the intermodal ramp, is on Railex Road off Highway 12.

Union Pacific pulled the plug on its Cold Connect refrigerated railcar service in 2020, amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Tiger Cool Express announced in fall 2021 that it was acquiring the warehouse and planned to develop the intermodal ramp at the site.

Number of employees you oversee: 418

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Ben Franklin Transit is a municipal corporation formed in 1981 that provides public transportation services in a 618-square-mile area in Benton and Franklin counties. Our services include fixed-route buses, Dial-A-Ride, Vanpool, CONNECT and General Demand services in Prosser and Benton City. Fixed route is the bus system most people are familiar with, but we also offer:

• Dial-A-Ride, which is door-to-door transportation for people whose disabilities prevent them from using the fixed-route bus system.

• Vanpool, supporting groups of five to 15 people who commute to work together in passenger vans.

• CONNECT, designed primarily for customers who do not live within our service area to help them get to and from bus stops and transit centers to access fixed-route services.

• General Demand services, which connect riders to predesignated stops within Prosser and Benton City. Riders must request service via phone.