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10/30/2024
Editor's note: This story has been updated to clarify where CSX will operate double-stack container trains after the project's completion.
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and CSX on Monday announced the launch of double-stacked rail operations to and from the Port of Baltimore.
The service is a milestone for intermodal rail service between Baltimore and Midwest markets, said CSX President and CEO Joe Hinrichs in a press release issued by Moore's office.
In addition to enhanced transport cost efficiency and environmental benefits, double-stacking containers will help the port grow its business by about 160,000 containers annually and create 13,000 new jobs in construction and in operations.
“This transformational project will help increase business activity and create thousands of new jobs. In partnership, we are creating new pathways to work, wages and wealth for all," said Moore.
The initiative boosts the Howard Street Tunnel project, which calls for reconstructing the 129-year-old tunnel in Baltimore and upgrading 21 other locations in Maryland, Delaware and Pennsylvania to increase vertical clearance by 18 inches to allow double-stack container trains to move to and from the port. When the project is completed, CSX will be able to operate double-stack container trains all the way to points in Massachusetts.
While construction is still ongoing at several Maryland sites, vertical clearance improvements at rail bridges north of Baltimore are complete, providing CSX the opportunity to operate double-stack rail service on a temporary route from the port along the CSX network in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and onto the Midwest until the work is completed in 2026.
Double-stack operations also complement the expansion of the Seagirt Marine Terminal, operated by Ports America Chesapeake, as home to supersized Neo-Panamax cranes that handle ultra-large container ships, according to the press release.