advertisement

---

Cordele Intermodal Services Inc. (CIS) plans to open an intermodal terminal in Cordele, Ga., on June 1.

The Cordele Inland Port is being built through a public-private partnership between the Cordele-Crisp County Industrial Development Council and CIS, which will serve as the facility's operator. A second phase expansion of the facility is projected for completion in 2014.

CIS worked jointly with CSX Transportation, the Heart of Georgia, Georgia Central and Georgia Midland railroads, Georgia Ports Authority and Georgia Department of Transportation to develop a short-haul container move between the Port of Savannah and Cordele. Overnight service for container traffic moving between the new terminal and Savannah will be provided by the Heart of Georgia and Georgia Central railroads. Final moves into Chatham Yard at the port will be handled by CSXT.

Containers will be trucked within a 350-mile radius of Cordele to the terminal, then railed to Savannah for export. Containers arriving at the port will be railed to Cordele and then trucked to final destination points. CIS expects double-stack train moves to begin in June and average one to two trains per week.

CIS has obtained commitments for 6,000 containers in the first fiscal year from the first two shippers lined up for the intermodal service. The number of containers will grow as the company continues its marketing efforts in new markets surrounding Cordele, CIS officials said in an April newsletter.

“Our marketing activity has intentionally been kept to a minimum until we had a better idea of when the facility would be open and train schedules were decided,” they said.  “As we get more staff in place, these efforts will grow exponentially as we reach out to shippers in our target market.”