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

Is work still being done in the yard 6 area?

Not anymore. It looks like the Yard 6 / Sprague lead track was rebuilt and some vegetation was cleared.

Might have just been overdue maintenance. That yard lead was in very rough shape...Although I wonder if Sprague is anticipating more Kaolin / Liquid bulk traffic when CSX takes over.

Everything gets messed up after Christmas/New Years… it was probably just a rebalancing move. Eimskip is moving to 1000+ TEU ships on the Green Line… if they can find any available for charter….

Some IMT updates:

- The Cold Storage facility has been delayed (temporarily) because of construction cost increases, but they anticipate a late summer-early fall groundbreaking. The facility will actually be a bit larger than initially planned, With an extra ~6,600 sq ft and 2 additional truck bays added to the waterfront side of the building.

- The Port Authority is in the early planning phases of a dredging and wharf rehab project that would allow the IMT to handle ships up to ~2,200 TEU)

- Eimskip intends to replace all 3 ships currently sailing the Green Line with 1,000-1,200 TEU ships by mid 2023.

- In regards to CSX...Eimskip anticipates draying ship-to-rail containers to a future Rigby intermodal facility rather than using Yard 8 unless improvements are made to the Yard 8 ramp. (There's nothing currently planned)

- The Port Authority is still earnestly hoping to lure in either a Caribbean feeder service or dedicated refer service.

I've read criticisms of Yard 8 in this thread, but what changes are desirable/possible if we assume there's no appetite to take any of the boatyard's land (aka get back into eminent domain proceedings with Phin Sprague)?

- In regards to CSX...Eimskip anticipates draying ship-to-rail containers to a future Rigby intermodal facility rather than using Yard 8 unless improvements are made to the Yard 8 ramp. (There's nothing currently planned)

What improvements are needed? I'm sure the municipalities would rather see that done than have additional truck traffic on local streets.

Making it about 20 times as big for starters...

My view is there is no where near enough open space left dockside to build a functional and economical intermodal terminal on the waterfront

Dray to rigby or bust

Yeah, although the idea of a semi rail-on-dock facility is enticing, the short dray to a new IM terminal at Rigby makes lots of sense. Maybe the cold storage building can be redesigned for rail service?

A transload is the only type of usage I could see working there, it is setup well where trucks can get right up to the railcars. I hope they figure something out to do with it.

Getting some sort of gantry / straddle crane and creating a better turnaround for the IMTs trucks would at the very least allow for effective loading on both tracks and more efficient transfers from port truck to rail...But that still doesn't really solve the larger issue of the Yard 8 ramp only being able to load ~20 40' well cars at a time...which is why Rigby is the preferred choice

Not only is there limited loading space, there is no yard track near by to switch wells in and out of the loading track. Even if there were, all that switching costs $. It is unclear to me if track 2 is usable at all.
Plus the pad is tiny. Nowhere to stack any significant number of boxes

Meanwhile on the other side of the cove:

Transformative 1.3 Million SF B&M Site Redevelopment Planned in Portland
There are filed plans for a redevelopment of the closed B&M Baked Beans plant in Portland. The transformative project - named the Institute for Digital Engineering and Life Sciences - will feature mixed-use space across 6 new buildings anchored by Roux Institute and Northeastern University. The project will feature 650 residential units as well as a 130-key hotel, with the tallest building reaching 170 feet.

Oh no. That's what happens when you shut down a rail line. Can't call them New England Baked Beans anymore. Could partially explain the recent 50% price increase. Are they replicating the Brick Ovens in the midwest factories?

Kind of hard to justify maintaining 25 miles of track and signals for a car a month, which is why SLR threw in the towel.