Port of Quincy, Wash., holds rural freight mobility summit

The Port of Quincy, Wash., recently held a Rural Freight Mobility Summit. More than 70 agricultural, food processing, railroad, trucking, ocean cargo, economic development, warehousing and distribution leaders attended the summit, which primarily focused on freight mobility and transportation issues (intermodal, distribution, rail and trucking issues) impacting perishable shippers in North Central Washington and the Columbia Basin of Washington State.

The Port of Quincy Rural
Freight Mobility Summit featured several high-profile speakers on
transportation and freight mobility issues in Washington State.

In particular, a lot of the
discussion at the Rural Freight Mobility Summit centered around the Port of
Quincy’s Intermodal Terminal and the new Pacific Northwest-Chicagoland Express "Cold
Train" Intermodal Service, a new refrigerated intermodal container rail
and distribution service between Quincy and Chicago, which was described by
several of the speakers as an important cost-effective intermodal rail shipping
option for perishable shippers in Central Washington.  

Additionally, the Port of
Quincy Intermodal Terminal was hailed as a tremendous example of a successful
public-private partnership in which public investment by the Port of Quincy, federal
and state governments has now attracted and created private sector economic
development from companies such as Rail Logistics (i.e., the Cold Train) and
Columbia Colstor (i.e., the Columbia Colstor International Intermodal
Warehouse), etc.

Moreover, there was quite a
bit of conversation about the need for Washington State to invest in improved
freight mobility infrastructure so that its ocean ports will be able to better
compete on a global scale with new and/or improved high-tech port facilities in
Canada and Central America.