Where are the largest ports on the East Coast (namely in the Northeast)? Obviously New Jersey has a number of them, but where else in CT, RI, MA, ME? I know CN has a large terminal at Halifax, but that’s pretty much all Canada traffic up there. From what I understand, Boston if fairly limited in access (and only served by CSX). What about Portland, Providence, New London, New Haven? Any chance for development? They’re running out of capacity on the West Coast, but I don’t hear of any calls for more capacity on the East Coast…
Don’t overlook Philadelphia, Baltimore, Norfolk/Newport News/Portsmouth, Charleston, Savannah, Brunswick, Jacksonville, Port Canaveral and Miami as being East Coast Ports.
It aint about capacity on the East Coast, it’s about where the shipping company finds the most profitable port.
Sometimes they dump a ship load in Norfolk at Portsmouth and whistle up a bunch of starving truckers to run em into Baltimore and points beyond rather than sail the ship all the way up the Bay.
Chester PA for me has the fastest “In-out” time of any I know of on that coast, I think a full chassis interchange and a box swap only needs about 40 minutes flat there.
Dont worry about development. All the states on the east coast along with the local Government at each affected city squirms and writhes in agony if a ship decides to sail elsewhere. They cannot stand not to be competitive in development.
All of that is irrevelant if the Longshore Shack is padlocked early in the morning.
I know about those down south - I’m just curious curious about those between NYC and Halifax. How big is St. Johns on the NBSR?
East coast ports that are readily acceptable run from Maine to New Orleans (not east coast but a big port). Nearly every state has at least one. Since it is so diverse you don’t get the backlogs like the couple of west coast ports. Beside most of the ports were there before the country so there is none ofthe west coast bias for voting green and living anything but that prevents any new contruction.
Boston is a major port with Container Freight being handeled by CSX (formally Boston & Albany) and Pan Am (formally Gilford Rail System, formally Boston & Maine). CSX climbs west to the mile long “State Line Tunnel”, Pan Am heads west following rivers to the 5 mile long “Hoosac Tunnel”, once the longest in the US to reach New York State and west.
Rhode Island has the port of Providence, Providence & Worcester has been hauling IMPORTED (low sulfur) coal to eastern Power Stations. A third track has been added to the Northeast Corridor between Providence and the new shipping terminal at the Quonsit Point redevelopment site (formally Quonset Point Naval Air Station) and is also served by the P&W. This is a major receiving point for far east automobile ships.
New London CT, like Boston, is open to the Atlantic but has failed to develop as a major port. It is served by Providence & Worcester and the New England Central (formally the Central Vermont). New Haven is in Long Island Sound, with all those pleasure boats and gets mostly coast tankers.
Portland Maine was, and may still be, the only port on the east coast that can dock a “Super Tankers”. An Oil Pipeline runs from Montreal Quebec to the port of Portland. Rail service to Portland is by Pan Am.
Portland ME. used to ship a lot of grain to Russia.
In the 1970s I made 5 or 6 trips from Portland to Odessa.