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Business View Magazine
as sub-divisions. Officially, we are South Carolina De-
partment of Commerce, Division of Public Railways do-
ing business as Palmetto Railways.”
Today, Palmetto Railways, according to McWhorter
is, “strictly a freight operation which spurs economic
development throughout the state. We have a couple
of operations within the State port facilities and we
handle all the rail switching arrangements for them,
but that only represents less than 25 percent of our
overall business. Our primary role is terminal yard
switching operations and connections to the Class 1
railroads – that’s the value that we provide.”
Under the umbrella of Palmetto Railways, PUCC and
PTR provide switching services to South Carolina Ports
Authority terminals, and interchange with CSX Trans-
portation and Norfolk Southern Railway; ECBR serves
BP Chemical and Nucor Steel in southern Berkeley
County. Other companies served by Palmetto Rail-
ways include: BMW, MeadWestvaco, Santee Cooper,
DAK, Frontier Logistics, Lansing Group, CMMC, SSA
Marine, and Neil Brothers. Palmetto Railways also pro-
vides construction and maintenance of track, repair
and leasing of locomotives, and consulting services in
railroad matters to state, local and municipal govern-
ments.
Palmetto Railways is continuing to experience growth
and expansion. It recently made a $3.2 million infra-
structure investment at the Port of Charleston’s Co-
lumbus Street Terminal. 4300 feet of additional track
will help the company handle a proposed increase in
BMW’s production output. It is also working on build-
ing an intermodal container transfer facility on the
site of the former Charleston Naval Complex in North
Charleston that will serve the State’s port facilities and
have a direct connection to a new marine container
terminal that is presently under construction. The new,
$200 million facility will serve all of the port locations
for the movement of intermodal traffic in and out of
Charleston with its access to both Class 1 carriers
