PANYNJ wraps up ExpressRail Port Jersey project

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) yesterday announced the completion of the ExpressRail Port Jersey facility, the final piece of the port's intermodal rail network spanning facilities in Elizabeth and Newark, New Jersey, and Staten Island, New York.

Opening the Express Rail Port Jersey intermodal facility allows the port to advance its five-year goal to handle more than 900,000 rail lifts a year — the equivalent of 1.5 million fewer truck trips traveling through local roads, PANYNJ officials said in a press release.

The rail facilities were designed to reduce the port’s historical heavy reliance on trucks to transport cargo and expands its geographic cargo reach to inland hubs. Trucks still account for moving 85 percent of all containers on and off port terminals today, they said.

Completion of the rail network wraps up two decades and about $6 billion worth of investment in the port to drive cargo growth. In addition to the $1.7 billion Bayonne Bridge project and the $600 million in port rail network investment, the port has also deepened harbor channels to 50 feet, rebuilt wharves and berths, enhanced its internal road network and installed improved security systems and infrastructure, port officials said.

As a result of those investments, PANYNJ is poised for the first time in at least 20 years to overtake the Port of Long Beach in California as the nation's second-busiest port, they said.

From January through April, PANYNJ posted 1,690,214 loaded 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) compared to the Port of Long Beach’s 1,669,440 loaded TEUs for the same period. PANYNJ surpassed Long Beach in volume of both loaded imports (1,203,674 TEUs) and loaded exports (486,540 TEUs), officials said.

“The port has been the lifeblood of the New York-New Jersey regional economy for decades, and completion of this intermodal rail project will only help to bolster our already strong position in attracting international cargo destined for the northeast region and beyond,” said PANYNJ Chairman Kevin O'Toole.