The West Virginia Port Authority board has authorized negotiating short-term leasing of the 100-acre facility with the intent of selling it at auction within a year, according to Transport Topics.
Once touted as a key element for rural economic develop, the $32 million facility, opened in late 2015, is the state’s only intermodal terminal. Its rail connection, Norfolk Southern, which donated most of the land, says that unless the terminal generates 15,000 containers per year, service will end in October.
May’s container count was 68, according to Byrd White, state transportation secretary.
Besides the Virginia-Chicago rail connection, the terminal was to be linked with a planned four-lane highway joining it to Interstate 64 and, following two miles of dredging of the Big Sandy River, it was also to serve barge traffic.
But the highway remains in the planning state and “at present, we couldn’t afford to dredge a bathtub,” Byrd says.
Also, the terminal’s main customer, Toyota Motor Co., only uses 20-foot containers. Since local lumber shippers need 40-foot containers, there is an ongoing shortage of those units.
Following $500,000 annual losses, Governor Jim Justice budgeted nothing for Heartland in 2019 to 2020, meaning funds will run out in mid-August.
White says private entities could possibly be profitable at the terminal site but resuming its operation as an intermodal facility is unlikely for a long time.
White says the state is negotiating with two entities to buy or run Heartland, according to a columnist for Charleston, W.Va.’s, West Virginia Metro News.
Seems like getting some empty 40′ containers in there would be a good start.
Tales of two sides of a river.
The Big Sandy Sub on the Kentucky side with a 4 lane US 23 to support it. Power plants, refineries, factories all along the route.
The Kenova Sub on the West Virginia side, a 2 lane US-52 (its four lane in front of the yard). Not much between Huntington and there.
Both subs connect with the same Clinch Valley District in Virginia. Might have worked if you had a lot of containers coming in at Norfolk that needed to be sorted before heading to Chicago or Detroit (like auto parts).
But it appears the other line takes more traffic north from Savannah and Charleston.
I have a feeling if the state had talked to several of the nearby ports along with the rail carriers, the placement many have been much different.
As it stands right now, it looks like lots of money, best intent with lots of coal miner unemployment drove this.
Somebody bought a lot of dreams that could never materialize
I would be curious to know the rest of the story on this. Was it expected to be a success and unfortunately came up short? Or yet another example of the government throwing money at a problem with no results?