Portland Waterfront Rail Ops (Yard 8, Intermodal, etc)

bostontrainguy wrote:This would be quicker and less labor intensive than loading containers onto railcars.

If this were true it would be the case in a lot of other places as well. The railroads use containers over roadrailers because they are more economical. I am not in the least bit convinced that roadrailers are less labor intensive. In fact they may be more labor intensive depending on wear characteristics of the rail wheel sets when compared to the potentially superior handling characteristics of well and spine cars.

Christ, I worked in a Roadrailer yard for half a year in Bethlehem. While I think a better solution is out there, it is,not the Roadrailer. They are hard to hook up, even harder to pull off of the rail bogie, the bogies are always wearing out breaks, the air hoses are always damaged. The things are dogs.

From the Portland Press Herald:

Portland Press Herald wrote:Icelandic shipping company Eimskip will add four trips to Portland this year – a 13 percent increase in port calls over 2016 – continuing growth at Maine’s sole container terminal.

Eimskip has increased port calls to Portland from 26 in 2013 to 35 planned for this year. The increased visits are being driven by a 20 percent growth in shipping volume, said Larus Isfeld, managing director of Eimskip USA. Portland is the only U.S. port Eimskip ships to directly.

“We have been growing every year since we came here,” Isfeld said. The company’s goal is to have weekly calls to Portland by 2020 and it has been growing its shipping volume over time to meet that goal, he said.

Weekly service is regarded as the minimum required to serve inventory management strategies used by many companies today. If weekly service can be established, it will make Portland a more attractive port for manufacturers and distributors with business interests in northern Europe.

Read the rest of the article at: http://www.pressherald.com/2017/02/20/e ... th-europe/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

BDN Maine from 3/2/17: Poland Springs says site near Lincoln seen as potential bottling site due to proximity to I-95 and PAR line:

https://bangordailynews.com/2017/03/01/ ... ling-site/

You can really see the effect that a rail oriented transportation manager is having on the entire company. I doubt they will ever consider a truck dependent site like Kingfield ever again.

It's a smart move on a lot of levels because Pan Am has so much underutilized capacity. In some ways it is equivalent to driving down an interstate highway without any traffic.

I'm particularly impressed at the choice of Lincoln. They stay with their prime carrier (Pan Am) but stretch into the water rich parts of northern Maine. On this segment in particular they would have the railroad to themselves.

gokeefe wrote:I'm particularly impressed at the choice of Lincoln. They stay with their prime carrier (Pan Am) but stretch into the water rich parts of northern Maine. On this segment in particular they would have the railroad to themselves.

Its quite interesting to see them apparently trying to stay close to the railroad, but I wonder what their long term plan for shipping is. Lincoln is nearly a hundred miles of 10mph track north of their existing rail-borne service. Its also 100 miles from the nearest intermodal terminal.

Yes, Lincoln struck me as being unusually far-flung. Then again, it's only "under consideration" at this point and it's not unusual for companies to announce a particular town in hopes that another town (their preferred location) will compete harder, e.g. tax incentives.

While tax incentive negotiating is almost certainly a part of it, geographic diversification could be a player when you consider last summer's weather. The drought was less severe further north. Wells in far flung regions would help insulate them from serious production cut backs in future years if they are similar to last. Especially as they grow the Poland Spring brand and the volume of water they are 'producing' each year, multiple sources insulated from each other become more important. As I understand it they cut back significantly on production from the Hollis facility and relied much more heavily on the Kingfield plant last summer. Another facility well north does make sense, even if the transportation is a bit more of a headache. Lincoln might be a willing suitor, too, having just lost a mill and all the property tax that goes along with it. A wind farm up there did offset a good chunk of the mill loss, but some new well paying jobs and a diversified tax base should be appealing to a town thats lived and died on one employer for the last few decades.

Agreed. And it's probably not a coincidence that they're specifically looking at mill towns like Rumford and Lincoln. Mill towns are absolutely desperate for any kind of economic development they can get their hands on. That puts Nestle in a very enviable negotiating position.

I agree with this. They have been getting a lot of heat in the southern part of the state whenever they bring up the idea of expansion

I know the track to Lincoln is bad but I think we might be on the cusp of Poland Spring building their first rail served bottling plant. Their daily volumes would make a big difference in the condition of the line. Rumford is of course a similar scenario.

Both sit on dilapidated rail lines that will require a lot of $ to run intermodal effectively over. If anyting Rumford is a better location, only 40 some odd miles to a 25 mph mainline and already has good tonnage going there daily. Lincoln is a 100 miles.

Well at least it won't blowup if there's a derailment!

Article reads that Fryeburg is in play as well. C'mon now...where are all the Mountain Division foamers??? this is the moment you are waiting for!!!

gokeefe wrote:I know the track to Lincoln is bad but I think we might be on the cusp of Poland Spring building their first rail served bottling plant. Their daily volumes would make a big difference in the condition of the line. Rumford is of course a similar scenario.

Unless they would load containers at the plant in Lincoln (unlikely)