This story originally appeared on Trains.com.
BALTIMORE — CSX launched double-stack service to and from the Helen Delich Bentley Port of Baltimore on Monday thanks to clearance projects that have been completed north of the Howard Street Tunnel.
“This is a great day for the Port of Baltimore and a great day for Maryland,” Gov. Wes Moore said in a statement. “As the Port of Baltimore continues to grow, this transformational project will help increase business activity and create thousands of new jobs.”
Chicago-Baltimore train I104-26, with ES40DC No. 5303 on the point, had the honor of being the first stack train to arrive at the port.
The governor’s office said the port will become more competitive due to the ability to offer double-stack service to and from markets in the Midwest and Northeast.
State officials say double-stacking containers will help the port grow volumes by about 160,000 containers annually and will create 13,000 jobs in construction and operations. Double-stacking will also complement the expansion of the Seagirt Marine Terminal, operated by Ports America Chesapeake, as home to supersized Neo-Panamax cranes that handle ultralarge container ships.
“This is a significant milestone for intermodal rail service between Baltimore and Midwest markets and wouldn’t be possible without the ongoing collaboration between our federal, state, and local project partners,” CSX CEO Joe Hinrichs said in a statement. “This underscores our broader commitment to enhancing service efficiency and safely expanding our network capabilities through the Howard Street Tunnel project, allowing for greater efficiency in this critical corridor.”
Construction is ongoing at several Maryland sites. However, vertical clearance improvements at rail bridges north of Baltimore are complete, allowing CSX to operate double-stack rail service to the Midwest on a temporary route from the port along the CSX network via Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York until the Howard Street Tunnel work is complete in 2026.
The Howard Street Tunnel Project includes reconstructing the 129-year-old tunnel in Baltimore and 21 other locations in Maryland, Delaware and Pennsylvania to increase vertical clearance by 18 inches to allow double-stacked container trains to operate to and from the Port of Baltimore. When fully complete, the double-stack project will allow CSX to offer double-stack intermodal service in the I-95 corridor.