Business View Magazine - August 2016 119
International Bridge that connects Presidio to Ojinaga,
Mexico. “We’ll have all sorts of different freight types
then between the industrial manufacturing or distribu-
tion areas of Chihuahua and Dallas/Ft. Worth,” she
says. The bridge reconstruction was supposed to have
been begun early this year, but a re-design has delayed
the start date a bit. “The design has been completed;
it has been approved by the State of Texas and the
Army Corps of Engineers, and now it’s in the permitting
phase,” Grindstaff reports. “Construction is expected
in 2017 and it can be in operation by the end of the
year.”
In addition, for the first time in its history, TXPF has de-
cided to market it services to potential new clients. “To
date, we’ve done very little sales in the sense of cold-
calling,” Grindstaff says. “Most people have found us.
But we have a new employee working here who came
to us from Ferromex with experience in marketing and
he and I are working together on international busi-
ness development. So we are, for the first time, cold-
calling customers in Mexico.”
And the value that TPXF is offering those customers is
its location. “We’re a very favorable route,” Grindstaff
states. “We’re one of the shortest routes from the mid-
USA to a Pacific port for the Asian market. That’s why
the railroad was conceived back in the late 1800s.”
So, in terms of new exports, Grindstaff is hoping to
garner more agricultural clients in Colorado, North
Texas, and the Midwestern plains states for any cot-
ton or grain going to Mexico or the Pacific. Regarding
imports, she says, “There’s also a lot of manufacturing
in the state of Chihuahua and a lot of companies there
ship into the U.S. And so, whether the final destination
is Dallas/Ft. Worth or a point beyond that, we’re the
most efficient route to the north and east and to the
east coast of the U.S.”
But regardless of any new types of clients it may ac-
