GPA announces new Gainesville inland port to take truck traffic off of Metro Atlanta roadways (Savannah: transporting, live in)

[Born 2 Roll]

The Georgia Ports Authority has just named the northeastern metro Atlanta exurb of Gainesville as the latest location for an “inland port”.

Georgia Governor Nathan Deal and Georgia Ports Authority officials made the announcement on Monday.

Georgia’s first inland port was in Cordele in south Georgia, and the state has just opened its second inland port in Murray County north of Chatsworth in northwest Georgia near Dalton and Chattanooga.

Both the inland ports at Cordele and Chatsworth (along with the just named future inland port at Gainesville) are intermodal rail terminals designed in conjunction with existing freight railroad routes to allow for direct freight railroad connections from Georgia’s fast-growing seaports at Savannah and Brunswick.

The goal of these inland ports is to move more freight via rail, and have fewer freight trucks filling up Atlanta's metropolitan roadways. In short, the goal is to get the goods to and from the Savannah and Brunswick seaports without ever having to touch often already-crowded metro Atlanta roadways.

"Georgia Ports Authority Announces New “Inland Port” Near Gainesville" (GeorgiaPol.com)
(the link includes the entire text of the press release from the Office of Georgia Governor Nathan Deal)

[DreamerD]

Originally Posted by Born 2 Roll

The Georgia Ports Authority has just named the northeastern metro Atlanta exurb of Gainesville as the latest location for an “inland port”.

Georgia Governor Nathan Deal and Georgia Ports Authority officials made the announcement on Monday.

Georgia’s first inland port was in Cordele in south Georgia, and the state has just opened its second inland port in Murray County north of Chatsworth in northwest Georgia near Dalton and Chattanooga.

Both the inland ports at Cordele and Chatsworth (along with the just named future inland port at Gainesville) are intermodal rail terminals designed in conjunction with existing freight railroad routes to allow for direct freight railroad connections from Georgia’s fast-growing seaports at Savannah and Brunswick.

The goal of these inland ports is to move more freight via rail, and have fewer freight trucks filling up Atlanta's metropolitan roadways. In short, the goal is to get the goods to and from the Savannah and Brunswick seaports without ever having to touch often already-crowded metro Atlanta roadways.

"Georgia Ports Authority Announces New “Inland Port” Near Gainesville" (GeorgiaPol.com)
(the link includes the entire text of the press release from the Office of Georgia Governor Nathan Deal)

I'm really happy to hear this. Anything that helps towards traffic is something I'm grateful for.

[MattCW]

I keep hoping that with this and the existing port expansion, NS would take a serious look at the old Georgia Railroad from Atlanta to Augusta. To get onto their tracks, they literally just have to restore a grade crossing here in Warrenton: https://goo.gl/maps/6E3mF2LS2SH2
Right now, anything going between Atlanta and Savannah literally has to circle Macon causing congestion. Anything going to the west has to go that route, the Macon - Birmingham line isn't cleared for the double stack containers, and is out of the way anyways.

[Soccernerd]

Hopefully it will alleviate traffic in Metro Atlanta especially on 285.

I bet people who live in the vicinity of the railroad tracks that will carry all of the extra won’t be pleased though.

[LTCM]

If only we had the outer perimeter.

[MattCW]

Originally Posted by Soccernerd

Hopefully it will alleviate traffic in Metro Atlanta especially on 285.

I bet people who live in the vicinity of the railroad tracks that will carry all of the extra won’t be pleased though.

At a maximum of 150,000 containers per year, presuming an even in/out distribution, is about 150 train cars per day each way (5 days/week, 50 weeks/year, two containers per car). That's about 10,500 feet of train which in the modern railroad world is one train each way per day. On a line that sees ~30 trains (~15 each way) each day, that's not much. And again, that's at its absolute peak. Even then, if you serve it twice each day, that's only an extra 5k feet, more than small enough to stick on existing trains. But regardless, that's what happens when you move next to a track, I have no sympathy for anyone that moves next to a railroad, then complains about it.

[OhioNative]

The inland port is already producing new development.

AMD to build fulfillment center in Gateway Industrial C... | AccessWDUN.com

[Newsboy]

That’s a long convulated route for a ship coming up from Savannah or Brunswick

[ATLTJL]

Don't know anything about how this stuff works.

Would it work at keeping traffic off the road?

Even with congestion in Atlanta, transporting goods on trucks would be faster and cheaper than intermodal in most cases, no?

[Newsboy]

Originally Posted by ATLTJL

Don't know anything about how this stuff works.

Would it work at keeping traffic off the road?

Even with congestion in Atlanta, transporting goods on trucks would be faster and cheaper than intermodal in most cases, no?

Nope. Trains are faster and cheaper.