'Cold Train' ready to haul produce

QUINCY — More than 60 representatives of food processors and produce shippers got a first-hand look at an express cargo train aimed at moving perishable foods from Washington to the east coast.

The Port of Quincy held a shippers open house at its Port of Quincy Intermodal Terminal last week. It was hosted by Rail Logistics with assistance from Interstate Distributor Company and Columbia Colstor. The “Cold Train” will launch service on April 1, with a grand opening scheduled for April 10 at the same site.

The Port of Quincy Intermodal Terminal, built in 2006, is a state-of-the-art cargo handling facility on the Burlington Northern Santa Fe main line. It includes more than 10,000 feet of track and a new container maintenance and cleaning facility. It also has nearly 1 million square feet of cold storage.

Visitors to the open house had an opportunity to see a new “Cold Train Intermodal” 53-foot temperature-controlled containers, made by Hyundai. The new Cold Train express will carry the containers with fresh, frozen and dry product from Eastern Washington to the Midwest double-stacked on well cars.

“There are all kinds of 53-foot containers. These are the first containers of their type in the world,” said Steve Lawson of Rail Logistics in Kansas City.

This PNW-Chicagoland Express Intermodal Service, designed specifically for Washington produce, will travel the 2,000 miles to Chicago and points within 200 miles of Chicago within four days, according to representatives of Rail Logistics and the BNSF. They said it will be a less expensive way to move Washington produce to the Midwest. And it will effect a 50 percent reduction in carbon footprint over trucking, they said.

According to the PNW-Chicagoland Express Web site, the Cold Train will leave Quincy six days a week, excluding Monday, if there is product available. It will leave on Sundays at midnight and at 10 a.m. Tuesday through Saturday. It will arrive in Chicago in three days, according to the Web site.

The trains will not be wholly “cold.” They will originate in Seattle with other products. If there are full “cold” containers at Quincy, the trains will stop to load and then head on to Chicago.

“There will always be trains out of Seattle on that schedule, but they will not stop in Quincy if there are no full cold containers,” said Steve Lawson of Rail Logistics of Kansas City.