Port of Virginia on Track for Increased Double-Stack Rail Service
There’s light at the end of the tunnel — the Virginia Avenue Tunnel in Washington, D.C., specifically.
And it’ll mean more rail cargo can move from Portsmouth more efficiently and economically.
Though it’s roughly 200 miles north of Hampton Roads, the aging tunnel affects rail operations at the port’s Virginia International Gateway container terminal.
CSX Corp., which owns the single-track tunnel, moves most of its cargo to and from the port through the gateway.
While the tunnel provides a passageway for the railroad’s cargo to points north and elsewhere, it can handle only single-stack cargo-container trains because its ceiling is too low.
That situation, however, is about to change.
“We’ve only had single-stack service with CSX out of the Port of Virginia, but come January that changes,” said John Reinhart, CEO and executive director of the Virginia Port Authority.
CSX has been building a two-track tunnel complex to replace the old one since May 2015. The company expects to have one of the new tracks open for double-stack traffic by the end of the year, CSX spokesman Rob Doolittle said.
The second is expected to open in late 2018.
In 2010, Norfolk Southern Corp., the port’s other big Class I railroad, opened a faster, shorter double-stack route linking the port and the Midwest with the completion of its “Heartland Corridor” project.
