Experts urge action on Toledo port/rail infrastructure
May 24, 08 by TheFleetIf you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
By Justin R. Kalmes | Source: Toledo Free Press
A specific project in Canada currently in the works could serve as the catalyst for transforming the region into one of the country’s intermodal centers, he said.
The Melford International Terminal Inc. project in Nova Scotia could allow the transfer of cargo containers from mega-container ships to trains, which would then travel Canadian National Railway lines to destinations in Canada and the United States.
The facility, according to a company document, will serve as a transfer point for containers coming from Asia and the Indian sub-continent that are shipped to North America via the Suez Canal. Melford is a privately funded endeavor.
Canadian National already has a terminal in Toledo at a facility known as Lang Yard, but the site is landlocked by Interstate 75 and the Hoffman Road landfill, Hartung said. Despite having an intermodal facility in Detroit, he said, Canadian National could look to Toledo because of the congestion around the Detroit metropolitan area.
Canadian National could use the city as a west terminal to trans-ship goods to ports throughout the Great Lakes, a process known as short-sea shipping, because of the amount of cargo Toledo’s sea port can handle, Hartung said.
But for Canadian National to develop an intermodal facility in Northwest Ohio to meet its needs, Hartung said, the infrastructure needs to exist to maximize the company’s ability to move containers inland throughout the United States. He said Melford Terminal is expected to open in 2011 with the first phase in the development at full capacity by 2015.
Creating the needed infrastructure to entice Canadian National to develop an intermodal terminal in Toledo needs to come through a partnership between government and the private sector, Hartung said.
“We want to have the improvements in place when that first ship comes in,” he said. “We need sites where we can move in and start to develop.”
Such sites do not exist in the area, Martinko said. Having them could be the difference when companies looking to develop an intermodal facility select a site, he said.
“We’re not the only place in the world that has strategic geography,” Martinko said.
Read the full story about this and other intermodal opportunities, at the Toledo Free Press >>
