Interest Growing in the Port of Quincy Intermodal Terminal as an Inland Port to Ship Ocean Containers by Rail to Puget Sound Ports

QUINCY, Wash., May 15, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The Port of Quincy has recently been receiving a lot of interest and inquiries from shippers and other stakeholders about utilizing the Port of Quincy Intermodal Terminal as a westbound inland intermodal port in central Washington in which trains could be loaded at the Intermodal Terminal with ocean containers of Washington State dry agricultural products (wheat, dry corn, dry beans, hay, legumes, and other grains, etc.), and then be railed to the Ports of Seattle and Tacoma to be loaded onto ocean container ships.  

In February, the NW Seaport Alliance provided a presentation/report to shippers and stakeholders in central Washington on the "Inland Port Impact on Growing the Agriculture Industry".  According to the presentation, an inland port would offer the following benefits:

• Congestion on major roadways and mountain passes would be reduced as the number of truck trips per day would decrease to/from the Puget Sound.
• Containers could be moved with more speed and reliability while lowering the carbon footprint of exports via rail.
• Containers could be spotted closer to the shippers, with 24/7 availability of picking up or dropping containers in a secured yard.
• Would attract new investments in warehousing facilities and other industries supporting the agriculture market.
• Turn times could be improved so that exporters would be able to ship more of their products overseas because marine terminals would be less congested.

Rep. Matt Manweller, the Co-Chair of the Washington State House Rail Caucus, stated, "There is a great deal of interest by the Rail Caucus in exploring the concept of an inland intermodal port or terminal that would give trucks that haul export containers of Washington State agricultural goods and other products the option of going to a less congested inland port location in central Washington."  The export containers could be then loaded onto westbound intermodal trains at the inland port location, instead of trucking the containers over busy freeways (such as I-90/Snoqualmie Pass) into more congested urban areas in the Puget Sound, explained Manweller.

The Port of Quincy Intermodal Terminal is a modern and fully functional inland intermodal port facility located on the BNSF mainline (i.e...Stevens Pass line), and is available and ready to support or provide the above mentioned services and benefits for shippers and exporters.  In particular, the Intermodal Terminal includes over 8,000 feet of rail storage/siding tracks and could easily accommodate loading westbound short-haul intermodal trains with 40' or 20' containers of dry goods such as hay, corn, wheat, beans and other grains or legumes, etc.  Additionally, the Intermodal Terminal includes: a container maintenance and cleaning facility, nearly 1 million square feet of warehousing in close proximity to provide shippers with distribution, cross-dock and storage capacity in and out of central Washington, a container reach stacker, a top pick container loader, and a shuttle wagon/yard goat (i.e…a small locomotive) to move and organize stacked containers within the terminal.   Furthermore, the Intermodal Terminal resides on 16 acres of land with another 20+ acres available for expansion on adjacent Port owned property to the east of the existing terminal.

The Port of Quincy has a successful track record of handling/shipping both westbound ocean containers and eastbound domestic intermodal containers.  In the early 2000's, export containers of refrigerated agricultural products were shipped by short-haul intermodal trains from the Port of Quincy Intermodal Terminal to the Ports of Seattle and Tacoma.  More recently (until late 2014), the Port of Quincy Intermodal Terminal was used to load eastbound refrigerated intermodal trains, and several thousand intermodal containers per year were being shipped from Quincy, WA to various destinations in the Midwest and on the East Coast.

Stated Curt Morris, the Chair of the Port of Quincy, "We appreciate the discussion and interest in the Port of Quincy Intermodal Terminal as an inland rail port in which ocean containers would be received and hauled by train to Seattle and Tacoma marine ports, and we look forward to working with various shippers, decision makers and other interested parties as these discussions continue."

For more information, please call Curt Morris or Patrick Boss of the Port of Quincy at 509-214-7696 or [email protected].  

About the Port of Quincy

Located in the center of Washington State near the Columbia River, the Port of Quincy is ranked as one of the best low-cost rural locations in the United States for business and economic development with a full array of infrastructure including: plentiful low-cost hydropower electricity, high-capacity fiber optics, an abundant supply of irrigation water, a major interstate freeway (I-90), a water treatment system, natural gas supply, a skilled workforce, approved foreign trade zone status, relatively inexpensive industrial/commercial properties, nearby commercial air service, a key rail line (BNSF Railway from Seattle to Chicago), a modern intermodal terminal, and a central location in Washington State's most productive irrigated agricultural region.

SOURCE Port of Quincy

Related Links

http://www.portofquincy.org