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

ExCon90 wrote: ↑Thu Mar 21, 2024 9:36 pm I'm not familiar with Eimskip -- are they Danish?

Eimskip is an Icelandic company, with headquarters in Reykjavík.

More info on their web site: https://www.eimskip.com/services/liner-services/

So nothing is going out of there by rail right now, right?

Right now nothing moves by rail out of Yard 8. The Maine Port Authority wants to realign and expand the Yard 8 intermodal ramp but there's very limited space to do so. The focus now is developing the IMT into a specialty port for refrigerated cargo and they expect the facility to have a max capacity of +/-60-65k TEU per year. They also want to attract a Caribbean / Panama feeder service.

Once dredging is complete the IMT will be able to handle ships up to about 2500 TEU but will likely never be able to accommodate the massive 10k+ TEU ships calling at Halifax.

A container port at the B&M site is pure fantasy. The Roux Institute has fully realized plans for their research campus and plan to start construction this year. The site isn't for sale and the obstacles to developing a container port on that site are too numerous to count.

CPF66 wrote: ↑Thu Mar 21, 2024 3:11 pm In addition, it was mentioned elsewhere that SLR extended the lease for the line.

Elsewhere in the forum or in an official filing? I wouldn’t be shocked if that was the case, considering SLR testified agains the bill last year.

Cosakita18 wrote: ↑Fri Mar 22, 2024 4:25 pm A container port at the B&M site is pure fantasy. The Roux Institute has fully realized plans for their research campus and plan to start construction this year. The site isn't for sale and the obstacles to developing a container port on that site are too numerous to count.

Thank you for being the voice of reason/reality.

Goddraug wrote:

CPF66 wrote: ↑Thu Mar 21, 2024 3:11 pm In addition, it was mentioned elsewhere that SLR extended the lease for the line.

Elsewhere in the forum or in an official filing? I wouldn’t be shocked if that was the case, considering SLR testified agains the bill last year.

It was mentioned in a news article last year or the year before.

CN9634 wrote: ↑Thu Mar 21, 2024 7:07 pm

ExCon90 wrote: ↑Wed Mar 20, 2024 7:56 pm I can't imagine what container line would consider calling at both Halifax and Portland on the same voyage; containerships are so expensive to operate that the emphasis is to make as few port calls as possible to keep the ships moving. It's been frequently commented that no vessel earns money while docked at a port.

Eimskip literally does that today with sub 1000 TEU vessels…. The few port calls as possible is in fact the opposite of what they do, they try to maximize port calls within a certain routing to keep vessels as full as possible. This is especially important with 20-25000 TEU ships coming off dry dock, which make no sense to operate one single OD port pairs at 10% capacity… you need feeder ports at several stops to fill and discharge.

With respect, CN, this is not the case. The larger the vessel, the more limited the number of port calls. Not only do ship scale economics change (meaning the bigger the ship, the more container lifts are needed at a particular port to justify the call), most secondary ports can't even handle larger vessels. Feeder ports are, by definition, locations that handle regional traffic that feeds into (is fed by) primary ports for furtherance beyond, typically on a larger vessel.

OT: It's good to see you around, sir. I hope you are well!