"Norfolk Southern runs somewhat near PTIA, and it operates over the North Carolina Railroad, which terminates at the Morehead City port, which is arguably closer than Norfolk. By transporting containers over NCRR, containers from Durham, Raleigh and points to the east could be transported, as well as those from Winston-Salem and the west.
Enhancing Morehead City’s container-handling capabilities and making it a true deepwater port capable of handling “Panama-class” ships would give North Carolina a competitive edge."
Mr Clapp's plan would require buying $Millions of Dollars of railroad right-of-ways as the North Carolina Railroad is no closer to Piedmont Triad International Airport than Jamestown. The other option is to pay tolls to the owners of other railroads for the use of their tracks to connect to the NCRR-- thus the reason Norfolk Southern, currently transports the containers to the port 100 miles farther away in Norfolk.
On Friday, December 27, 2013 I posted a much better idea that I think bears repeating:
PTI Investments May Be In The Wrong Part Of Greensboro
For years we've been hearing local politicians talk about how important it was to invest in transportation at Piedmont Triad International but as I've pointed out before:
You see, the future of long distance transportation has long been known to be in trains and ships and it looks as if PTI as a transportation hub is simply not located in the right place. As a matter of fact: one of the reasons PTI was so quickly dropped as a possible location for Boeing was because PTI has no railroad hub"They talk about transportation hubs... for what? Empty trailers?"
And yet in today's News & Record, Richard M. Barron writes:
"Trucks, trains and cranes — sounds like a pretty good recipe for a small child’s Christmas.Did you hear that, he said, successful. And it didn't cost Greensboro taxpayers a dime-- not one cent. Mr Barron goes on to write:
They are also the makings of a successful new international port in the heart of Greensboro.
The Norfolk Southern Railway and the Port of Virginia have teamed up to load international containers from companies around Greensboro to make worldwide shipping a lot easier."
"There, goods from this region’s companies are lifted straight onto massive cargo ships for destinations from Europe to Vietnam.What's that? Local business owners are praising it too? How could it be? The article continues, this is a homegrown North Carolina industry-- you know, the best kind:
Importers are also getting loads straight off ships back into Greensboro.
For local companies that use containers, it’s a welcome — and more affordable — option compared to trucking their cargo on highways.
“Our business has grown tremendously in the past two years, and the rail has meant a lot,” said John Beard, the president of Beard Hardwoods in Greensboro. “It has enabled us to turn our product quicker, and there’s no doubt it has helped us increase our revenue.”
"The shipping container is at the heart of a way to move goods called “intermodal transport.” That means a container, specially built up to 53 feet long, can be loaded with any cargo — lumber, furniture, even snack chips — at a warehouse, put on the back of a truck and sent to a port or a rail yard.But here in Greensboro our elected "leaders" and economic development "gurus" continue to point to aviation-- why?
The shipping container system was developed in the 1950s by the late Malcolm McLean, a North Carolina native who operated the massive McLean Trucking company, which was based in Winston-Salem until its bankruptcy in the late 1980s.
According to a PBS website called “Who Made America?” McLean saw dock workers struggling to haul small containers of cargo onto ships.
“Wouldn’t it be great,” he said, according to the website, “if my trailer could simply be lifted up and placed on the ship?”
His idea was such a success that the Port of New York developed a special terminal for intermodal containers.
Now container ships with boxes stacked Lego-like lumber into Savannah, Ga., and Charleston, S.C., Wilmington and Norfolk, and ports throughout the world."
"They talk about transportation hubs... for what? Empty trailers?"You realize the North Carolina Railroad has tracks running through East Greensboro all the way to the Port of Wilmington and several empty industrial properties with rail sidings are positioned along them. Several other industrial properties in East Greensboro could get rail sidings for an investment of about $300,000. And Wilmington is far closer than Norfork. Folks, we're talking about investments of a few Million vs the Hundreds of Millions the politicians and economic development "gurus" normally speak of.
If I were a local elected leader I'd be getting some railroad and cargo ship executives on the phone and asking them if they'd like to expand their intermodal operations via the Greensboro area, ASAP.
Placing intermodial operations in East Greensboro would make them more accessible via Interstates 40/85, I-840 (the Urban Loop) US 29 (I-785) the coming K-mart Connector, the East Cone Blvd. extension and East Wendover; cheaper to build due to lower land values and closer proximity to the North Carolina Rail Road which runs along side East Market and East Wendover, and far, far closer (20 miles) to the largest population of unemployed workers in the entire City of Greensboro.
Update: As you can see in the map below, the distance from Piedmont Triad International to Guilford Technical Community College in Jamestown is roughly 10 miles. The driving distance is listed as 12.6 miles. Jamestown is the closest point at which the NCRR passes to PTI. Click on the link to view the map full size.
View Larger Map
Why would we want to build 10 miles of track when a few hundred feet of track built on cheaper property on the east side of town would provide better access while providing jobs where they are most needed? The answer: Aerotropolis in disguise.
And as long as you're here, check out my series, I'm Being Sued By Rocco Scarfone. It's a true tale of a modern day mobster rife with political corruption, scandal, drugs and even death.
