Vancouver USA, BNSF reach preliminary agreement
The Port of Vancouver USA and BNSF Railway Co. have reached preliminary agreement for a historic transaction facilitating the construction of the port's $137 million West Vancouver Freight Access project (WVFA).
The Washington state port said BNSF has tentatively agreed to sell nearly 17 acres of right-of-way and donate about $6 million of accompanying rail infrastructure to the port to allow the construction of the port's preferred rail alignments. As part of the deal, the port will finish construction of the project by the end of 2017.
Port customers now use more than 57,000 railcars annually. Recent studies forecast that rail use at the port could grow to as much as 160,000 railcars a year when the project is complete and operating.
The new project would expand dedicated port rail facilities from 18 miles of track to more than 43 miles, providing significant unit train and capacity improvements to the Pacific Northwest railroad system.
The port said 70 percent of its cargo is currently moved by rail, a number that's expected to grow to more than 80 percent upon completion of the WVFA project.
BNSF currently handles all rail services inside the port property, and delivers about 20 percent of port traffic for further handling by its competitor, the Union Pacific Railroad.
The agreement would also open the way for new commercial rail access for shippers within the port's expanding marine and industrial facilities at Terminal 4, the Alcoa property (also known as the port's future Terminal 5), and the future development at Columbia Gateway.
'To ensure the smoothest possible operation of port rail facilities, the port is granting BNSF exclusive rail operator status to directly serve to all of our customers, regardless of carrier. BNSF and the port will meet regularly to ensure that port customers receive the best possible rail service,' said the port's Executive Director Larry Paulson, in a statement. 'BNSF has been deeply involved in the preliminary planning with the port. This is a team effort and we could not have brought the WVFA project to this point without BNSF's partnership. This is a good example of how public-private partnerships can work.'
The port said, together with BNSF, it will seek new customers to benefit from the rail expansion. The port will deliver more than 600 acres of new space for marine and industrial use over the next 10 to 15 years, effectively doubling its size.
'We believe we are the only U.S. West Coast port that has this amount of development potential,' Paulson said. 'Rail is more environmentally-friendly than trucking cargo over distances. By rail, one ton of cargo can be moved more than 400 miles on a gallon of fuel.'
