NY-NJ port rail projects progressing amid record US imports
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has set a goal of moving 900,000 containers on its ExpressRail system by the end of 2024. Photo Credit: GCT Bayonne.
The completion of a long-planned intermodal project at the Port of New York and New Jersey at the end of this year will offer rail shippers faster service to the Midwest and other markets and help the port reach its goal of moving more containers via its rail service.
In addition to the Waverly Loop project, two other intermodal projects that would further increase the e ciency and volume of intermodal rail are being discussed by Conrail, the port’s rail services provider. However, those projects remain on the drawing board while Conrail and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) work out their funding and scope.
The nalized and proposed improvements come amid an ongoing deluge of imports, particularly from Asia, that has resulted in vessel bunching and congestion at the country’s largest coastal cargo gateways and, in more recent weeks, bottlenecks at inland intermodal hubs in Dallas, Chicago, Memphis, and Kansas City.
The Port of New York and New Jersey is likewise dealing with an import surge that has resulted in laden import TEU volume in the rst quarter of 2021 rising 21.9 percent compared to rst three months of 2020, according to data from PIERS, a sister company of JOC.com within IHS Markit. Port authority o cials have said publicly that the volume the port is currently handling wasn’t expected until another three or four years.
To help handle the growth, PANYNJ wants to shift more containers to ExpressRail, its on- and off-dock rail network. After moving 700,000 containers on ExpressRail last year, PANYNJ Deputy Port Director Bethann Rooney said Conrail’s projects will be critical to reaching a goal of 900,000 containers moved on rail by 2024.
“The Port authority values its long cooperative relationship with Conrail and is working closely with them on these enhancements, which will provide increased exibility for rail operations and train routing in the region, including new alternative access to the Port of New York and New Jersey’s ExpressRail terminals,” she said in a statement Friday.
Near-term expansion
Waverly Loop, the most signi cant enhancement to the port’s intermodal service in three years, is a one-mile installation of double track being built adjacent to Conrail’s Oak Island Yard in Newark.
Ryan Hill, Conrail’s chief engineer for design, told JOC.com that two new bridges for the projects were completed in April, grading and civil engineering work for track laying is being done, and the project is ready to be nished by the end of the year.
Waverly Loop will make it faster for CSX and Norfolk Southern to dispatch intermodal trains that originate from the GCT marine terminal in Bayonne, New Jersey, Hill said. GCT Bayonne is the site of the port’s last big intermodal project, the Greenville Yard off-dock rail yard that opened in January 2019.
Currently, intermodal trains that originate from Greenville must stop off at Conrail’s Oak Island Yard to have their locomotive repositioned to the front of the train before proceeding to the main freight lines. Waverly Loop will allow the trains to move directly without the additional stop at Oak Island.
“Those extra moves tie up the Oak Island Yard,” Hill said. “So this will be a lot cleaner and a lot faster.”
Genevieve Clifton, a program manager for the New Jersey Department of Transportation, which has backed building Waverly Loop since 2007, said at an April public meeting on the project it will ensure trains are dispatched promptly and increase the reach of rail services into Midwest markets originating in the Port of New York and New Jersey.
“The system uidity that Waverly Loop adds to the port really can't be understated,” Clifton said at a meeting of the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority. “It will serve our port out to our friends in Chicago, Ohio, and beyond.”
Norfolk Southern is the main intermodal provider out of GCT Bayonne, offering service to ve midwestern cities currently. CSX currently offers one service out of GCT Bayonne to Worcester, Massachusetts, which serves the Boston market.
Along with improving access from GCT Bayonne, the Waverly Loop will give CSX another route for its intermodal trains that originate from the Port Newark Container Terminal (PNCT) to access the River Line, the Class I railroad’s main north-south freight rail line out of the port, Hill said.
The River Line, which is used for the Worcester service, also gives CSX access to upstate New York markets such as Syracuse, where it expanded the capacity of its intermodal terminal last year, and the Midwest.
CSX spokeswoman Cindy Schild didn’t say whether additional services will result from the opening of Waverly Loop. However, she said the project will help CSX boost volumes that are being transported on the River Line.
“Waverly Loop is the most important of these projects, as it will enable us to grow capacity out of the New York and New Jersey port,” Schild told The Journal of Commerce Friday.
Longer-term possibilities
In addition to Waverly Loop making service out of GCT Bayonne and Port Newark easier, Hill said an expansion of intermodal track space at the Oak Island yard would bene t all the marine terminals in the port. Conrail hopes to add two additional miles of track to Oak Island, doubling its current track capacity, he said.
CSX and Norfolk Southern’s intermodal trains arrive at Oak Island with rail cars destined for different terminals across the port, Hill said. The additional tracks will provide Conrail with extra room for sorting those cars based on their destination.
“Oak Island sits at the intersection of all the different terminals,” Hill said. “It helps Conrail’s operations in handling all the intermodal tra c that comes into the port.”
Conrail is currently in the design phase for the Oak Island expansion, Hill said, adding that Conrail is working with PANYNJ to fund the project. While the New Jersey Department of Transportation helped fund Waverly Loop along with the PANYNJ, the agency is not likely to help fund the Oak Island expansion, Hill said.
Another major improvement to NY-NJ’s intermodal service could come through the proposed Southbound Connector project, Hill said. The Southbound Connector would allow intermodal trains that originate from Maher Terminals, the port’s largest marine terminal, to head directly southward along Conrail’s Garden State Secondary track that connects to the westbound freight rail lines that reach Pennsylvania and Ohio.
Westbound intermodal service from Maher requires bringing rail cars into PNCT where they are repositioned for their destination. That extra step, however, results in increased rail tra c at PNCT and further delays to intermodal service during periods of high volume, Hill said.
“It takes congestion out of PNCT and that would free up capacity to support not only Maher, but make it easier on PNCT’s rail operations,” Hill said.
While Conrail has offered preliminary designs for the Southbound Connector, Hill said for the project to work there will also need to be additional improvements on the Garden State Secondary, which connects the port’s three largest marine terminals with major freight rail lines. The PANYNJ has not yet said whether it would be willing to help fund the Garden State Secondary improvement, but Hill said Conrail is optimistic a solution can be found.
“Right now, the port authority is not looking at the Garden State Secondary, but we are scheduled to have some discussions on that,” Hill said.
Contact Michael Angell at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter at @michael_angell.