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32 | I NSIGH T • M a y 2 0 15 w w w . i n s i g h t o n b u s i n e s s . c o m I N S I G H T O N TRANSPORTATION B y S e a n P. J o h n s o n I t's a site that hasn't been seen in Sheboygan County for nearly a decade: trains hauling cargo between Plymouth and Kohler. Watch for it this fall. e Wisconsin & Southern Railroad began principal construction to restore the 11-mile line in late March. e rail line has been out of service since 2006. e $19.1 million project will restore rail service to Bemis Manufacturing, Kettle Lakes Co-op and several other businesses along the corridor. "We had several businesses along that corridor that wanted to use rail cars," says Dane Checolinski, director of the Sheboygan County Economic Development Corporation. "We were able to put together a coalition of state, local and private resources to make it happen." Not that it was an easy venture. e line, an east-west connector in the county, had been operated by Union Pacific Railroad, which determined that shippers along the line did not generate enough volume to make operating the line cost effective. As a smaller, regional rail service, WSOR can make the economics work on much lower volume, Checolinski says. Without rail service, companies along the line have had to rely on trucks, which are considered less efficient for large-volume shippers. "ere is a lot of anticipation for Working on a railroad Efforts to revive old rail lines picking up steam this," Checolinski says. "It's been a long effort." Rail service can transport a ton of freight an average of 480 miles, on one gallon of fuel. e same ton of freight shipped by truck, over the same distance, would require at least three times as much fuel. An additional benefit is the reduced negative effect on the environment, according to the Wisconsin Department of Transportation. e level of greenhouse gas emissions produced by freight trains is less than one-eighth of what is created by trucks, per ton of freight moved one mile. e Wisconsin Department of Transportation will finance the bulk of the restoration, providing grants of more than $17 million. e remaining costs are being picked up by WSOR, Kettle Lakes, Morrelle Transfer, Inc., Bemis, Sheboygan County and the cities of Plymouth and Sheboygan Falls. Rail service has become a key objective for other communities in the New North region as well. For the northern counties of the region, the restoration of service is seen as a critical issue to help improve the efficiency and competitiveness of its timber and related industries. But first things first. e limited service the area does have is in jeopardy as the fleet of cars for hauling logs is about to reach the end of its operational life. Under federal standards, the current fleet of log cars must be retired in 2017. Without the cars, restored service