Design of Bulk Railway Terminals for the Shale Oil and Gas Industry

Railway transportation is playing a key role in the development of many new shale oil and gas reserves in North America. In the rush to develop new shale oil and gas plays, sites for railway transload terminals are often selected on the basis of land availability and environmental constraints before full consideration is given to rail design and operating requirements. The result can be terminals that poorly utilize the available space or operate inefficiently and face long-term capacity constraints. Additionally, preliminary concepts may omit or underestimate the need for staging tracks, switching leads and other rail infrastructure required to support train operations, potentially altering the economics of a terminal. To facilitate more informed decisions regarding railway terminal sites and better track layout concepts, this paper presents design requirements for bulk railway terminals to support shale oil and gas development. Guidelines for sizing facilities and layout of different track arrangements, including stub-end, inline and loop facilities, are presented. Considerations for mainline access and multi-train operation to ensure terminal capacity to support current and future demand are also discussed. Developers following these guidelines will likely obtain greater returns from their real estate and facility investments through faster railway approval of design concepts and more efficient rail operations.