MATT GENTRY The Roanoke Times

A crowd gathers Thursday to watch a Norfolk Southern locomotive approach Belspring in Pulaski County. The train was celebrated as the first double-stacked train to transport freight to the Midwest on Norfolk Southern's upgraded Heartland Corridor.

BELSPRING -- A train rolled across Virginia along a celebrated freight line expansion Thursday.

After a series of test trains last month, Norfolk Southern Corp. on Thursday invited dignitaries to witness the passage of the first working train through a clearance-enhanced tunnel of the Heartland Corridor.

The corridor, which opened Thursday, is a new east-west rail service made possible by a shortened route between the Port of Hampton Roads and Midwest markets.

Taxpayers and the railroad covered the $261 million cost.

It is being heralded as an economic driver for the eastern United States -- a means to reduce interstate truck traffic, a model of public-private sector cooperation and an engineering miracle.

"This is a great occasion," Wick Moorman, railroad CEO, said at a trackside gala. "It's been a mammoth undertaking."

The route is not only faster by a day, cutting the trip across the eastern U.S. from four days to three, but dotted with tunnels tall enough for freight containers stacked two-high. That doubles the shipping capacity of the route.

The Norfolk-based railroad, which expects demand for freight rail service to nearly double by 2035, will run two or three trains in each direction each day. It is hoping to build on already sizable profits, which came to $392 million on revenue of $2.4 billion during the second quarter.

Three years of heavy labor to widen tunnels and clear obstructions came to fruition when two black locomotives and their load of 148 containers emerged smoothly from the 3,302-foot Cowan tunnel north of Radford shortly after 11 a.m.

"No sparks coming off the roof," Michael McClellan, vice president for intermodal and automotive marketing, remarked to a railroad colleague.

"That's good," replied Darrell Wilson, an assistant vice president. "It fit. That's fantastic."

After guests sat down for a black-tablecloth lunch, the train headed westbound for Columbus, Ohio; Chicago; and points beyond.

Under the vision by which the corridor is to operate, the railroad is just one of a series of freight-handlers in a system that employs intermodalism -- or multiple means of transport.

First, a ship brings products packed in rectangular freight containers to Virginia's shore. The freight is loaded onto a train and carried west. Cranes lift the boxes onto trucks for transport to the final destination. The process works the same way in reverse for items heading to the coast or offshore.

McClellan said the first train carried a mix of imported and domestic goods, but he could not specify the items.

"They could be Christmas trees or wrapping paper or stereos or lots of clothing," McClellan said.

If stacking containers two high is a good idea, what about three?

McClellan said he doubted three big boxes would balance. If the railroad wants to add further capacity, it will string together longer trains, the officials said.

Could the trucking industry respond by double-stacking container boxes itself?

Wilson said he doubted it. Trucking firms have typically extended their capacity by adding length, too. He called attention to the twin-trailer trucks seen on interstates.

U.S. Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke County, said he backs the federal government, which has not invested heavily in rail in recent years, doing so on this project.

"You probably can't do anything better with infrastructure spending than making railroads more efficient," Goodlatte said.

Noticeably absent from the speech-making was any mention of the planned intermodal freight yard in Montgomery County.

The proposed site in Elliston identified by Norfolk Southern and the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation sits on the Heartland Corridor. It is envisioned as a transfer point for freight between trucks and trains, giving Southwest Virginia direct access to the Heartland conduit.

But opposition from the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors has held up construction.

Its legal argument states that a planned state subsidy would represent an illegal giveaway of public money to a private corporation. County leaders have also said the project is poorly fit for the site and surrounding community.

A judge rejected a county lawsuit, but the Virginia Supreme Court agreed to review the case on appeal. The high court has received written arguments. Its next step is to set a date for a hearing.

For now, the Heartland Corridor will run through Southwest Virginia, but "there is no gateway in Southwest Virginia," Wilson said.

The tracks that make up the Heartland Corridor are not new, nor are double-stack trains. But double-stack trains heading for the Midwest have had to go around the Appalachian Mountains through Pennsylvania or Tennessee.

Engineers determined that the railroad could get the tall trains through by enlarging tunnels, shortening the route.

In most places, it didn't take much. Crews raised tunnel clearances from a typical height of 19.5 feet from track to ceiling to 21 feet by lowering or centering track where possible, but also used heavy machinery to knock out material. In all, crews enlarged 28 tunnels in Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky and removed 24 obstructions.

Clearance work came to $191 million. An intermodal rail yard on the Heartland Corridor at Columbus cost $70 million, for a total of $261 million.

The federal government paid about half of the cost of tunnel work ($83.3 million) and 40 percent of the Columbus terminal ($27.7 million). Virginia paid $9 million. Ohio paid $836,355. That left the railroad covering about $140 million, according to a railroad fact sheet.

If the train doesn't fit through all the tunnels, railroad officials know who to call: Anderson & Associates Inc.

The Blacksburg-based engineering, surveying, planning and landscape architecture company ran surveys necessary to design the widening steps -- helping others decide how much material to cut out -- and confirm that the procedures did the job. In some cases, crews returned to notch out more material after an Anderson survey showed the need.

Survey teams often worked at night to get access to the tunnels when no trains were running.

"The trains will fit," said Fred Hardwick, a crew chief who worked on the job. "They got about 6 inches of extra room."