No container ships have docked in 15 years…and now MBTA wants to build over the last port track. What happened that Boston no longer originates containers.
This gives a pretty good explanation.
http://press.princeton.edu/titles/9383.html
Particularly the chapter “Ports in a Storm”.
Boston didn’t make the cut. But then, neither did London.
It’s available as an E Book for reading on your PC from Amazon.
If you are just asking about originating (“Exports”) containers, I would say the simple answer is that Boston and New England in general is not the manufacturing center it once was thus the region is not generating enough “Exports” for a container ship to make it worth while to make Boston a port to call.
I don’t know about container ships. Boston does get containers by barge. Massachusetts and New England still do quite a bit of exports. A lot tends to go down to New York / Newark and quite a bit north to Montreal. I’m not sure about Halifax. I have also seen quite a bit that gets shipped (either truck or intermodal) to the west coast. In addition there are several other ports in close proximity to Boston. Gloucester is one I’ve been to (they have a cold storage warehouse on the pier). Providence like Boston gets container by barge and by ship also I think. A lot of smaller ports still get containers by barge. Also Crowley Maritime runs a roll on roll off barge operation for trailers. Not sure how far they go but they serve quite a few ports up and down the east coast, into the Caribbean and thru the Gulf of Mexico. Times change and people adapt. Thx IGN
Many factors caused Boston to lose Container Ship traffic, the biggest one is that the harbor is relatively shallow and the bottom is rocky, meaning to dredge the harbor deeper would mean expensive blasting.
I was going to ask about the nominal water depth of Boston Harbor. As ships get bigger their draft gets greater. The draft depth of a Liberty ship is not the draft of one of todays container ships.
Thanks for the referral to the book, greyhounds. That looks like a very good read for us transportation-obsessed board members here!
On the Pacific coast, the quality of rail connections has played a major role (though not the only one ) in the success of Oakland and Long Beach/Los Angeles vs. the alternatives
Does Gloucester handle any cargo other than seafood coming off their home ported fighing fleet?
The Port of Providence does not currently handle any containers. It’s almost all bulk;Fuels (Gasoline, Diesel, Home Heating oil) and road salt in and scrap metal out with some RO/RO vehicle traffic.
A small amount of containers come by barge into Quonset Point, RI (about 25 miles South of Providence) and a large amounst of automobiles come in (mostly from Japan), some used cars exports are happening as well. The auto business is generating a large number of Autorack movements on the Providence & Worcester…
It is a great, wonderful, fantastic, insightful book. It really gives a good explanation of why ports such as Boston declined. More importantly, it does the same in explaining why our bicycles are now made in China. The container literally allowed manufacturers to assume “Transportation costs approach zero.” on manufactured items. Such is the tremendous efficiency of containerized freight movement.
My real criticism of the author, Levinson, is his borderline hagiographic treatment of Malcom McLean. McLean didn’t invent the container. Nor did he put the first container ship on the ocean. That honor goes to the ship Clifford J. Rogers of the White Pass and Yukon sailing from Vancouver, BC to Alaska. McLean did a lot to foster containerization. But he wasn’t the first.
McLean was over 30 years behind Alfred Holland Smith, president of the New York Central, who understood the overwhelming efficiencies of containerization. Smith sought to implement the efficiencies for domestic US freight, only to be blocked by government neanderthals.
Think for a while about how much better off Americans would have been if Smith had been allowed to drop domestic logistics costs to the point where American manufacturers could “Assume transportation costs approach zero” on their domestic shipments of manufactured goods. The government bureaucrats simply didn’t know what they were doing. And we all continue to suffer because the
I recall that John Kneiling promoted the idea of building a major container terminal at Portsmouth, NH. It has a natural, deep water port that is ice-free, and at least at the time, made for one day shorter travel time for container ships from Europe, compared to New York City. IIRC, this was part of his plan of converting the EL, D&H, and B&M to integral trains from loose car service to become profitable.
Below is an editorial that I found in the Portsmouth newspaper. Seems the port needs a Ross Perot, Jr.-type entrepreneur. http://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherhelman/2013/09/04/a-billion-reasons-why-ross-perot-jr-loves-that-giant-sucking-sound/
By Portsmouth Herald Editorial Board
September 12, 2013 2:00 AM
The scrap pile at the Port of New Hampshire on Market Street has long and often been criticized as an eyesore and environmental hazard, with the latest scorn coming from a member of the Portsmouth Historic District Commission.
Richard Katz’s frustration did not account for Grimmel Industries complying with every state and federal mandate to improve its operation. The company has added watering measures to keep down rust dust, it deploys employees to clean up loose pieces along Market Street and it moved the scrap pile toward the street to reduce its impact on the Piscataqua River. It also paid fines that were used for oyster and eelgrass restoration in Great Bay.
Further, the state Department of Environmental Services installed an air-monitoring station across from the port to detect whether rust dust travels away from the scrap piles.
just too much tea in there for ships to enter.
The problem with “government neanderthals” extended to the state level as well. The CNS&M had a good start on piggybacking between Chicago and Milwaukee before the state highway departments clamped down on the idea due to competition with the toll roads.
My take on the 40 container is that it is the modern equivalent to the 40’ box car concept expanded to include sea and motor vehicle transport.
- Erik
My recollection is that John was always in favor of the Port of Halifax, Nova Scotia instead, for those same reasons. The consulting firm that then employed him - Theodore Kauffeld Associates, or similar - wrote a feasibility study that led to CN running a container train in the late 1960’s competing with the St. Lawrence Seaway, which was written up in a Trains article by William D. Middleton at the time:
“True-train tip-off - in competition with the St. Lawrence Seaway”
by Middleton, William D. ,from Trains, March 1971, p. 24
(Magazine Index keywords: CNR containerization)
That said, if you can provide a reference or description of where John might have advocated for Portsmouth, NH as well or instead, I’ll look for it and see what he said - it could well be also true.
- Paul North.
See:
“Integration in the north - How White Pass & Yukon, Alaska, and CN-Newfoundland interchange” by Hilton, George W., from Trains, July 1971, p. 36 [Magazine Index keywords: ARR CNR container ferry WP&Y ]
Darn good post otherwise, too - especially identifying and summarizing the “Transportation costs approach zero” principle. Thanks. [bow]
- Paul North.
Oh that’s OK, the tea ships can come back anytime they want. Tea’s cool now and all is forgiven.
One would suspect that the old adage "lacation, location, location " applies In this case both land and sea.
The major problem with Boston is the NIMBY attitude. If you did want to open up in Boston the Democratic state legislature will gladly pay you millions of tax dollars to move your operation overseas just as they have done for the solar power industries that left. Boston is world famous for chasing away business. The MBTA is constantly being infused with tax dollars to stay afloat and pay for the bloated pension and lavish salaries to connected officers. The city is the same way and is the next Detroit.
Any halfway smart business professional could see that opening up any sort of transportation company in or around Beantown could see a host of problems. Placarded loads are prohibited, Tolls, Roads designed for horse and buggy, Traffic nightmares during the daylight hours, and the cost of doing business in the city are just some of the reasons.
Pete
North Shore started its piggyback service back in 1926, long before any toll roads were even dreamed of. Also, even today there aren’t any toll roads in Wisconsin. The various regulations did not occur in a vacuum. The regulators placed a lot of the restrictions in place based on the wording of the various regulatory statutes at the time and in answer to complaints filed by the various trucking firms.
Just as a point of info: toll roads date from the 15th century. Toll roads as we relate to them date from the late 19th century, when the plank roads were being built. The PRR Main Line (1876) was built parallel to the Philadelphia & Lancaster Turnpike (1792). Now it’s US 30.
That’s true. But it is also irrelevant.
It wasn’t about toll roads, it was a dufus ruling by someone in the Wisconsin state government that the truckers using North Shore Line TOFC were wrongly avoiding the fuel tax they otherwise would pay for using up Wisconsin’s roads. Machs nicht. (a little army lingo there)
A government blocked innovation. And transportation efficiency. That’s the point.
.