More than 30 legislators (state and federal), businesses, organizations, and communities recently sent letters to the US Department of Transportation expressing support for a TIGER (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery) Grant to expand the Port of Quincy Intermodal Terminal in Washington state.
The 32 letters of support request that the DOT award a TIGER Grant to the Port of Quincy for infrastructure improvements and to increase cargo and shipment capacity at the Port of Quincy Intermodal Terminal. This terminal is in central Washington on a key cross-country Seattle-Chicago rail mainline and near Interstate 90.
The Port of Quincy’s proposed infrastructure improvement project for a TIGER Grant would extend the rail siding from the terminal two more miles to the east, provide gravel surfacing to accommodate placement of more shipping containers in the terminal, and purchase additional intermodal shipping containers and equipment for use by the port at the terminal.
The main reason the Port of Quincy needs to make infrastructure improvements is because usage and business at the terminal has increased dramatically in the past couple of years. From the time the Pacific Northwest-Chicagoland Express Cold Train Intermodal Service was launched in partnership with the Port of Quincy at the Intermodal Terminal in April 2010, this refrigerated intermodal container rail and distribution service (between Quincy WA and Chicago) has grown in popularity with produce and perishable shippers in the Pacific Northwest as well as shippers in the Midwest.
The number of eastbound shipments of produce on the Cold Train (from Quincy to the greater Chicago area) have risen several hundred percent since early 2010 and continues to climb. Volume of westbound shipments of cargo on the Cold Train from Chicago to Washington State have also increased by several hundred percent since the beginning of 2010.
For more information, visit www.portofquincy.org.
