Northern Plains Rail Companies

Northern Plains Railroad (NPR) is a customer-focused regional railroad operating a 350 mile network in North Dakota and western Minnesota. NPR is a member of the Northern Plains Rail Companies that provide a “one-stop shop” for third party rail services including track construction, rail car repair, locomotive servicing and supply, industrial switching, technical training, and consulting in the US Midwest and western Canada.
NPR is operated by Railroaders: Our success is based on an intense focus on Safety, Service and Growth, People, Asset Utilization, and Cost Control. These are values that NPR shares with its primary interchange partner, Canadian Pacific (CP). Together, NPR and CP deliver exceptional value to shippers – leveraging CP’s strong network connections in both the US and Canada, and the NPR’s local and customer-focused operations for the first and last mile.

NPR’s primary commodities handled include wheat, soybeans, corn, aggregates, and miscellaneous industrial products. The company commenced operations in 1997, and has grown carload volumes by 45% since its inception. We take pride in providing safe and consistent service and in our ability to make adjustments to operations when necessary to meet customer needs. In recent years, NPR has been recognized through a comprehensive rail satisfaction survey conducted by the North Dakota Public Service Commission – scoring highest in customer satisfaction of railways operating in the State.

Since its inception, NPR operations have evolved with the grain handling and transportation system in the US Mid-West. As a result, the company is pleased to have both world-class grain handlers such as CHS, together with smaller local co-ops such as the Fordville Co-op Elevator represented as valued customers on its network. Modern grain elevators capable of loading unit grain trains are located across the NPR network, together with elevators that take advantage of efficient loading of less than trainload quantities – truly offering a variety of transportation and market options to customers.

NPR operates multi-commodity transload locations at Lansford, ND, Fordville, ND, and Oslo, MN that can handle bulk products, steel, aggregates, and other industrial products – leveraging local truck to rail combinations. In addition, NPR has multiple locations available for continued industrial development.