Railroad Forums 

  • Sears Island Intermodal Terminal--VOTE HERE

  • Discussion of present-day CM&Q operations, as well as discussion of predecessors Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway (MMA) and Bangor & Aroostook Railroad (BAR).
Discussion of present-day CM&Q operations, as well as discussion of predecessors Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway (MMA) and Bangor & Aroostook Railroad (BAR).

Moderator: MEC407

 #334807  by Realityrail
 
MMA would appreciate the support of the MMA family and any of your friends you might wish to contact to SUPPORT the building of a port facility on Sears Island. This will mean a great deal to MMA as a Company, but will also be a very good thing for the territory they serve and Maine as a whole.


Click on the link, then click "YES" in the box that will come up. We need and appreciate your support.



http://www.bangordailynews.com/news/t/n ... zoneid=500

 #334968  by Cowford
 
Unfortunately, the question doesn't ask HOW one would support funding such construction.

Have any studies been commissioned to determine demand? Today's huge vessels (10,000+ TEU cap'y) require mega-terminals to operate economically. Searsport sits smack-dab between two: Halifax and New York. Even Boston has long been relegated to a backwater feeder port.

 #335039  by murray83
 
Not going to happen,sorry guys.

With Halifax loosing business and Eastport & Saint John barely surviving how in the name of god is Searsport a near by port going to become an intermodal terminal? your talking upper 6 digit figures here and the MMA and the Maine government will never get that money together.

Its nice to dream but no offence to this railroad but how about getting their act together on the traffic from Saint John before they try to build a terminal of their own.

 #335189  by northgandydancer
 
Garsh, did everyone forget about Mack Point? Sears Island is a dead issue. It couldn't happen 20 years ago because of outside influence and it sure isn't going to happen now. The Serria group is a lot stronger now than they were then and they were instrumental in putting the damper on things then so I can't forsee them sitting on their collective hands and letting the state or anyone else develop this as a deep water port. Now as far as Mack Point is concerned, that is a very doable thing. Extensive dredging was done (more than just maintanence) a few years ago to enable larger ships to get to the dock. The old delapitated warf has been replaced. If you look at the cost of docking a ship at St. John or any other "local" port you will find it is as costly as any port on the east coast. But when you check into docking at Mack Point it is much less. This is one of the biggest expenses in shipping by water. It isn't hard for me to forsee the container business taking off at Searsport in the not too distant future. With MMA being the rail link to the midwest it is great for them. It will be interesting to see how this whole thing plays out.

 #335336  by murray83
 
How is it less costly to dock at Mack Point than Saint John?

Your going to need to build a decent sized concrete re-enforced warf and purchase the needed equipment to handle containers (a modern container crane,shunt trucks,container forklifts) and at least 10-20 acres of paved surface with the needed electrical hook-ups for reefer containers.Not to mention the constant dredging this terminal will require.

You have no interested shipping lines and that is the major downfall of this proposal,Its just faster to ship into Halifax into the mid west via CN or through New York via CSX or NS.Not to mention this terminal will become unionized as fast as the front gates will open the ILA will make shure of that.

Saint John and Halifax as well as Boston already have existing terminals in place and they at the moment are all in the same rut,there is no way a terminal in southern Maine can be self supporting your talking $500,000 or more to get this a reality,comming from a longshoreman myself that money can be put to much better use on this line.

 #335384  by Cowford
 
Murray - I agree with everything except the $500k in development cost. $500K probably wouldn't pay for an environmental impact statement! Sad fact is that there's simply no need for it.

Maine's had two choices for waterfront development in the recent past (and present) that would spur industrial/rail activity: A refinery (no-one in Maine wanted it) and LNG import facility (no-one in Maine wants it).

 #335883  by murray83
 
Cowford: That figure is an estimate for equipment only I'm talking just one 40 tone container crane a few cocars (container forklifts) probably a few shunt trucks for the terminal and those are used prices.

Agreed,The way the LNG terminal's impact statement prooved that the channel for southern Maine cannot support a larger forest products or LNG ship so I can't see how a container ship would be any better.

In my honest opinion,why not work with the port of Saint John by trying to win back the traffic lost to CN from poor service from the MMA in the long run it would be a good idea than spending millions upon millions trying to start your own terminal that may not ever get any work.

 #337262  by roberttosh
 
There are almost too many reasons to list as to why Searsport/Mack Point could never be a player in the container business. For starters, to compete with the other big East Coast terminals from an infrastructure standpoint, you are talking about expenditures in the tens of millions of dollars (if not more). Just the environmental studies and engineering costs alone would be staggering!! Then you have the problem of which Class one is going to partner up with you. The CPRS, CSXT, NS & CN all have high speed, single line routes from the East Coast to Chicago, so why would they ever want to work with the MMA and have to split up the revenue? They wouldn't - plain and simple - which means you'd always be at a major rate & service disadvantage. Then you have the probelm of there being no big population center near Searsport. Places like NYC/NJ, Norfolk, Philly, etc all have millions of people living within 100 miles of them. That is clearly not the case with Searsport, as almost everything would need to move a great distance after being unloaded there. Lastly there is already over capacity at places like Boston, Baltimore & Halifax, so what makes you think Searsport could come in and get business when long existing facilities like those cannot?

I hate to sound negative and would love to see it work, but it just never could under present conditions.