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Issue 6 2019 - FBJNA


///INTERMODALISM


Jacksonville’s Intermodal Container Transload Facility provides direct container routing into Atlanta via CSX. (Jaxport photo)


Intermodal-Port Relationships


By Peter Buxbaum


Rail connections have become increasingly important to ports nationwide. Improved rail access leads to increased interest in port services from manufacturers and logistics


services. On the East Coast, enhanced


especially,


intermodal infrastructures allow seaports to compete for Asian cargo transiting


“Efficient and cost-effective rail


options allow us to better compete for cargo to and from destinations within the interior of the country.” -- Barbara Melvin, SCPA.


the expanded Panama Canal and headed for the Midwest. Building intermodal infrastructure goes hand-in- hand investments being made to port facilities. North American ports find


that superior rail connections represent a competitive advantage for their terminals. “Efficient and cost-effective rail options allow us to better compete for cargo to and from destinations within


the interior of the country,” said Barbara Melvin,


chief


operating officer at the South Carolina Ports Authority. South Carolina has been


notable in the development of improved intermodal connections through inland ports,


with Inland SCPA’s Port second


inland port opening in April 2018.


Dillon,


situated along the Interstate 95 corridor near the North Carolina border, provides overnight rail service via CSX to the Port of Charleston. In its first full fiscal year of business, Inland Port Dillon handled 29,580 rail moves in fiscal 2019. South Carolina is not the


only state to be making investments in inland ports. Last year, Georgia’s Governor Nathan Deal cut a ribbon opening the Appalachian Regional Port near Chatsworth, Georgia. The inland terminal is being operated by the Georgia Ports


“The ARP is part of our Network Georgia initiative that


brings services from the coast to communities around the state.” -- Griff Lynch, GPA.


Mason Mega Rail Terminal, a project that will double the Port of Savannah’s annual rail capacity to one-million containers and deliver


the


largest on-terminal rail facility in North America by 2020. Inland Port Greer, SCPA’s


Authority and served by CSX. “It is no accident the GPA is


constructing rail capacity as the demand for rail is growing,” said GPA Board Chairman Jimmy Allgood. “As part of our strategic planning two years ago, our team identified the growing role intermodal cargo would play in GPA’s long-term success and put into place this plan for expansion.” The GPA has also approved a $92-million investment for the


first inland port, located in Upstate South Carolina between Charlotte and Atlanta, “is surrounded by 94 million consumers within 500 miles and also serves to extend the Port of Charleston’s intermodal reach


by 212


miles,” noted a recent report from Colliers International, an industrial real estate consultancy,


providing


easier access to markets in Cincinnati and Indianapolis, among others. Now in its sixth


year of operation, Inland Port Greer


reported its busiest


fiscal year yet with 143,204 rail moves in fiscal year 2019, up nearly 22 percent from the prior year. In Georgia, CSX is providing


service on a direct, 388-mile rail route to and from the Port of Savannah’s Garden City Terminal, serving shippers across northern Georgia, northeast Alabama, Tennessee, and Kentucky, and removing 50,000 trucks and 15-million truck miles from highways each year. The new rail terminal—sitting on 42 acres adjacent to U.S. 411 and near Interstate 75—has the capacity to handle 100,000 container lifts per year.


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