Growth of new CSX terminal is on track, increasing each month

By JIM HOOK Senior writer The CSX intermodal terminal at Chambersburg seems more like a truck parking lot than the precursor to a $1 billion boost to the regional economy. The $46 million terminal on Kriner Road opened in September and has been ramping up operations as crews continue to lay rails. The rail-truck yard is operating at less than half speed. "(As an industry) we hit our peak in November and December," Chambersburg Terminal Manager Alison O. Smith said. "We have not experienced the (seasonal) slowdown other areas have. Our business is growing more every month." "At this point from everything I know, it's working as originally designed," said L. Michael Ross, president of the Franklin County Area Development Corp. "Is it getting the attention of other shippers? Yes. It is essentially building consistently." Smith posts aerial photographs of the terminal on the wall of her temporary office as construction progresses. "I didn't want to be a teacher or a nurse, I wanted to drive the train," said Smith, whose parents worked for the railroad, too. "This is a dream come true for me." She oversees an operation that is expected to do 90,000 lifts a year. A "lift" is loading a container on a train or unloading it. Crews currently accomplish about 132 lifts a day. A crane operator pinches a container to within an inch, lifts it off the rail car and sets it onto a truck trailer, again to a tolerance of an inch. A yellow "yard jockey," or Hostler truck, drives off with the trailer and parks it. The crane moves to the next rail car. The rail operation is located away from the trucks coming off the highway to drop off a trailer and pick up another. "For the most part there will be only one train a day," Smith said. "We can't order an extra train." The train can be up to 9,000 feet long and carry about 150 containers. "There's obviously room to grow," CSX spokesman Bob Sullivan said. "That will happen as the region grows." Until Country Road is closed and tracks south of the road are joined with tracks in use to the north, trains must back into the terminal, and so block traffic on Orchard Drive. The tracks are to be joined three or four weeks after the road is closed, according to Sullivan. Cul-de-sacs on either side of the road were completed in mid-January. "We think we're going to be able to impact the region," Sullivan said. "This is going to be a driver of economic growth here. We're delighted to be here in Chambersburg. We've been welcomed here. Our goal here is to be not just an economic asset, but a good neighbor and an active neighbor." Rail is making a comeback nationwide. Trains offer economies of scale, but rail also is attractive to shippers because it doesn't have to deal with the issues facing the trucking industry -- lack of drivers, high cost of fuel and traffic congestion. "We have trucking companies that are customers of ours," Sullivan said. Trucking companies more easily can recruit short-haul drivers than truckers expected to be away from home for days on end. Ships deliver to the ports on the West Coast, and trains haul the goods to the East Coast. "We're helping move everyday things you use and get them to the stores so you can use them," Smith said. The demand for shipping is expected to increase 67 percent by 2020, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. A train can pull one ton of freight 423 miles on a gallon of diesel fuel, Sullivan said. More than 30 million square feet of warehousing is within 150 miles of the Chambersburg terminal. The terminal is near Interstate 81 and had a relatively low impact on the public, Sullivan said. CSX supports construction of a proposed I-81 exit nearby, according to Smith. The exit could be located at Guilford Springs Road. CSX, however, does not want to see truck traffic limited at Wayne Road (I-81 Exit 15) where access to Kriner Road is convenient. The terminal's container train is expected to take 300 long-haul trucks off the highway. More than 15,000 trucks a day travel Interstate 81 in the vicinity of Chambersburg. "When you look at I-81 it's not having a noticeable impact, but every little bit helps," Ross said. "I'd rather have those 300 off than on." At night Smith can see the lights of the terminal from I-81. "I'm such an intermodal junkie it takes my breath away," she said. ---------- Jim Hook can be reached at 262-4759 or jhook@publicopinionnews.com. Terminal's staff CSX Intermodal Terminal at Chambersburg has a small staff. Open from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m., the rail-truck yard at 700 Kriner Road employs two shifts. CSX has eight employees on site. The company's five vendors have a total of 35 employees at the terminal. The vendors each specialize in one area: lifting containers, repairing containers or trailers, repairing rail cars, maintaining lift equipment and switching rail cars to build a train.