Strategic investment in freight infrastructure has the potential to pay off in a big way for the region. If nurtured, the Buffalo region’s role as a trade and transportation gateway could stregthen, creating thousands of jobs. So says a recent report commissioned by the Greater Buffalo-Niagara Regional Transportation Council. The “economic overview” submitted by Wilbur Smith Associates, a worldwide consultant, is the first of five technical reports on regional freight issues.
The study concludes that public freight investments would create jobs and spur economic development in the forms of new distribution centers, warehousing, and light manufacturing operations. An additional 27,000 jobs could be created over the next ten years in the transportation and logistics sector and the wholesale, non-durable good industry if the region emerges as a transportation hub for distributing international goods. Work is already underway.
The CSX Corporation is spending $8.5 million to create an intermodal inland port at the Seneca Yard in south Buffalo, Lackawanna and Hamburg. CSX plans to run trains between Buffalo and Elizabeth, N.J., providing direct service to and from Elizabethport.
The congested Port of New York and New Jersey is establishing inland hubs to move non-New York metropolitan area freight off the docks quickly via train. The Port Authority estimates that about 13 percent of its current marine cargo volume is transported off the port by rail. The stated goal is to increase rail handling to as much as 30 percent of the future total cargo volume while utilizing trucks to distribute freight within the New York metropolitan area.
Trains will bring containers to Buffalo where they will be inspected by Customs and transferred to trucks for delivery throughout the country. The increased freight traffic has the potential to spur additional warehousing and logistics services that will create new jobs in the region.
Planners are also looking at ways to better capitalize on Canadian trade. Empire State Development Upstate Chairman Daniel C. Gundersen recently announced that the state agency will reimburse up to 50 percent of the funding for a study to determine the volume levels and feasibility of a rail intermodal freight terminal in Western New York geared towards Canadian trade. The study will be administered by the Greater Buffalo-Niagara Regional Transportation Council which received the grant not to exceed $50,000.
“This is an important step that will help identify the feasibility of utilizing rails to support export and import business with Canada and determining how we can create a significant, positive economic impact in the region,” Chairman Gundersen said. “It is crucial that New York State be at the forefront of international business development and this study will help us realize how best to achieve those goals.”
“A new freight hub and enhanced rail activity in the Buffalo area would streamline commerce for businesses looking to grow and create new jobs,” said Congressman Brian Higgins, a member of the House of Representatives Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. “Governor Spitzer’s leadership on this project demonstrates his understanding of the important economic partnership between Canada and Western New York and how expanding this relationship is vital to the economic future of Buffalo and Upstate New York.”
Rail played a significant role in Buffalo’s industrial past. Intermodal presents an opportunity to re-emerge as an east-west and north-south transportation hub for distributing international goods.
Photos by Jerry Godwin