Continuing the legacy 30 years later at Willow Springs

By SUSAN GREEN
Staff Writer

Railroads were built on the dreams of visionaries like James J. Hill and Cyrus K. Holliday, forefathers of BNSF predecessors. Other leaders followed these 19th century titans, and some of their legacies are still being written -- and celebrated.

In the late 1980s, the leadership team for BNSF predecessor the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway (Santa Fe) recognized that intermodal – combining the low-cost capabilities of railroads with the pickup and delivery capabilities of truckers – provided not only economic benefits to customers, but environmental benefits as well.

 

To help fulfill that vision, Santa Fe built the Willow Springs Intermodal Facility outside of Chicago, and it was officially dedicated Sept. 22, 1994. (That same year, Santa Fe also opened its Alliance Intermodal Facility. One year later, Santa Fe and Burlington Northern merged to become BNSF.)

Willow Springs is near two major expressways and next to the United Parcel Service (UPS) sorting facility, Chicago Area Consolidation Hub (CACH). Today, 30 years later, BNSF continues to serve CACH, one of UPS’ largest consolidation and sorting facilities.

Willow Springs was built for efficiency and speed of operations for arriving, unloading, reloading and departing high-priority (or Z) trains. This is accomplished on four 5,000-foot double-sided tracks that allow inbound containers and trailers to be offloaded to one side, while outbound units are placed for loading on the opposite side. In addition, controlled sidings facilitate increased speeds when accessing or entering the UPS facility to meet inbound and outbound schedules while ensuring fluidity.

“Everything was designed with the intention of handling customer-sensitive just-in-time service,” explained General Director of Hub Operations Chuck Burriss, who was at Willow Springs when it opened. “Willow Springs serves our expedited customers, including parcel, premium truckload, LTL (less-than-truckload) and refrigerated shipments that have stringent daily schedules. In short, the facility design matched the market we intended – and continue – to serve.”

Last year, Willow Springs averaged about 1,440 lifts per day with a total of 524,555; in 1994, the average was 500 daily.

“Willow Springs remains a key terminal for BNSF and is entrusted with a large portion of our time-sensitive freight,” said Tim Worrell, BNSF’s director of hub & facility planning. “Currently, we average 52 train builds a week here, with all of them being Z trains.”

The team of 160 works 24/7 on tight deadlines with keen attention to detail, according to Worrell. “Every minute matters on the Willow Springs ramp, and the whole team works with one common goal: to safely produce world-class service for our customers. From the people in the tower to the crews and service providers on the ground, they take pride in the service we provide.”

When it was built, the facility was also intended to relieve some of the pressure on our nearby Corwith, Illinois, intermodal facility, which was the busiest terminal at the time. Today, Willow Springs works closely with Corwith, where the trains originate, so their coordination is key to meeting departure times.

While volumes can fluctuate, Willow Springs, like all our intermodal facilities, ramps up for more during “peak” – the holiday shopping season following Thanksgiving – and is already prepping for this year. In 2023, the facility saw a 10-percent increase in volumes in the fourth quarter over the previous three, primarily driven by peak.

“Our team always performs with focus and attention to detail, and local leaders have done a great job communicating needs and planning to ensure the team is ready,” said Worrell. “The last few weeks have been about utilizing our continuous improvement mindset, communicating lessons learned from previous years and ensuring our processes are tight. The Willow Springs team is ready to deliver once again to meet our customers’ expectations.”