At 10 cars a week if CSX or NS is hauling it at anytime in the transit sooner than later their going to be told to basically take a hike. Class 1 railroads donât like less than 100 a week anymore it seems.
It says
âThere isnât a bridge or tunnel to accommodate a train to Queens, although a long-planned freight tunnel is under construction.â
Rilly?
Anyone figure out where the terminal is? We can probably find that apartment bldg in the second pic.
Shortline
It says clearly in the article-- Queens and by barge. And it is a case for shortines beating trucks.
Eco Material Technologies says that itâs 90% more efficient for it to make deliveries to New York on a train.
This company built its own rail terminal in New York City to avoid relying on trucks
Itâs been more than half a century since it became more common to ship freight in trucks than by train. But when one company decided to start selling its product in the New York City market, it built its own new rail terminal to avoid the cost and emissions of trucks.
âA truck is not an efficient way to take these types of materials long distance,â says Grant Quasha, CEO of Eco Material Technologies. The company makes supplementary cementitious material or SCM, a component added to concrete to make it stronger and longer-lasting. The material is made from fly ash, a type of waste produced from coal plants that the company sources from landfills at locations throughout the country. A truck can hold 20 tons of it; a train, which can move as much as 2,000 tons, cuts emissions by at least 90%, Quasha says.
The company wanted to serve the construction market in New York from one of its sites in rural Pennsylvania, as well as another site in Georgia. But since trucking would be cost-prohibitive and more polluting, they turned to the more old-fashioned solution of rail.
First, they had to find rail lines that were still in use in the right location. âWe had to scour the area to find existing infrastructure that could work with our needs,â Quasha says. They partnered with a local short-line railroad that owned a rail yard in Queens, not far from the companyâs concrete customers. Then they built a terminal in the rail yard that would work for their specific needs. Extra train tracks at the terminal allow them to store their product in train cars until itâs needed.
The logistics are complicated. To make a delivery from one of the companyâs sites, in Pennsylvania, the train canât go straight there. There isnât a bridge or tunnel to accommodate a train to Queens, although a long-planned freight tunnel is under construction. After a train reaches New Jersey, the train cars go on a specialized barge with built-in train tracks. A tugboat pushes the barge across the Hudson and East Rivers, and then another locomotive picks up the train cars in Brooklyn.
Turns out the aptm bldg is at 40.7363N 73.9367W and the terminal is at LIRR Blissville.
What other freight gets floated to Brooklyn these days?
But thereâs no direct shortline connection from either Pennsylvania or Georgia were these loads start out from. Which means theyâre going over a Class 1 to get to the final point. Weâre all aware of how much the class 1 railroads hate loose car railroading anymore.
Perhaps you should start worrying?
Would guess the class 1âs love this business as first and final mile via shortline. Even with the barge across the Hudson the rail costs should make this appealing cost wise and very profitable.
Ed
If you have access to Google Earth Pro, the latest 3/24/2025 imagery shows the unloading facility and four covered hoppers at 40.736393,-73.941434.
The Bay Ridge 65th Street rail-barge terminal is at 40.641749,-74.028971.
Isnât that right where the Cross-Harbor service runs?
I believe so. Officially goes by New York New Jersey Rail. They have a nice website:
And âback in the dayâ all the railroads in New York had their own navies of tugs, car floats, liters at work to serve all the commercial interests of the New York/New Jersey harbor area.
It seems the writer of the article is oblivious to rail freight. Which isnât really surprising where their exposure is going to be more likely commuter and transit rail operations.
I donât know the density of fly ash, but itâs a bulk material that doesnât lend itself to long haul trucking. It wouldâve been better had they compared weights between trucks and individual cars. Iâm guessing a carload can net close to 100 tons.
I donât know about CSX or NS, but UP wouldnât want an operation like this as a unit train. In the PSR scheme, itâs better to have commodities that would move in irregular unit trains to be handled in smaller blocks and moved in the manifest network. They would rather move smaller blocks every few days as cars are loaded, rather than waiting a week or 10 days to load a complete unit train. The irregular moves means you might have to have to have reserves of people and equipment available to handle such business. PSR hates having reserves waiting in the wings. Which also makes it hard to grow business beyond what theyâve âright-sizedâ the railroad for.
If other railroads can do the pickup and delivery, so much the better.
Jeff
Fly ash weighs in at around 500 pounds per cubic yard compared to sand at around 2200 per yard and gravel at 2200-2700 per yard.
The owner of this large company has obviously made arrangements with two shortlines and a major.
I see the UP traffic flow daily. Itâs not only unit trains coming in and out of Chicago.