The port moved 4.5 million 20-foot equivalent container units in fiscal 2019, a 7.3% increase, port officials say.
Terminal employees “and our two Class I rail providers — CSX [Transportation] and Norfolk Southern — are moving freight faster and more efficiently than ever before in our history,” says Griff Lynch, executive director of the Georgia Port Authority. “Rail cargo is expanding at twice the rate of our overall container trade, reducing congestion on our highways and increasing Georgia’s reach to a mid-American arc of cities, including Chicago, St. Louis, and Columbus, Ohio.”
Container lifts to rails totaled more than 500,000 for 2019, up 16.6%.
Anticipating opportunities to attract larger Pacific Ocean container vessels following expansion of the Panama Canal, the Port of Savannah has been involved in a multi-year expansion including harbor dredging, new cranes, and increased rail capacity through its Mason Mega Rail Project.
Now 35% complete, the Mason project will double Savannah’s rail capacity to a million containers per year when finished in 2021.
Nice to hear something good about rail service.
All for getting more 65 MPH trucks out of the passing lane of the 2 lane interstates heading north & west!