'Cold Train' to serve growers, shippers

QUINCY — The upcoming start of refrigerated intermodal container service from Quincy is expected to reduce product handling and help the local fresh produce industry get their product to market quicker.

Service officially starts April 1 from the Port of Quincy’s intermodal yard to the Port of Chicago.

Rail Logistics President Mike Lerner said his company is the first to initiate a refrigerated container service in the US.

Nearly 95 percent of Washington’s pears, apples and cherries are currently shipped by truck and exported fruit is moved by boat, according to the Wenatchee Valley Traffic Association.

“It will be cheaper for the shippers, we’re hoping,” said Port of Quincy Commissioner Patric Connelly, on Friday.

Connelly also commented about how the service is “finally going to happen after all of these years.”

Port officials expect containers to start showing up this week. “We’re excited, we’ve been doing upgrades to equipment and facilities. We’re pretty pumped about it,” Connelly commented.

The intermodal yard was completed in 2006, when the railroad had all the business it wanted, he explained.

The port first planned to have product shipped to the West Coast, but the economy changed and the railroad started looking for business, he said.

With the new service, apples, onions, potatoes, cherries, nectarines, peaches and all kinds of frozen fruits and vegetables will head east to Chicago.

Connelly is traveling to Chicago to attend an open house for shippers held by Rail Logistics, which is the company shipping containers from the port.

The port and Rail Logistics have entered into a contract for the company to provide the service.

Lerner, of Rail Logistics, said the company signed up growers, processors, purchasers, brokers, food distributors and grocery chains for service.

He explained the term intermodal means between modes of transportation.

Here’s how the company’s service works: The refrigerated container is placed on a chassis. The load is picked up, taken to the Port of Quincy, where it’s loaded on a rail car and sent to Chicago. In Chicago, the load is removed from the rail car and delivered.

The service can help reduce the cost of delivering the product, said Charles Pomianek, executive director of the Wenatchee Valley Traffic Association (WVTA).

The WVTA represents the packing, warehousing, shipping and marketing community in North Central Washington.

“I think it’s like all new opportunities. It may take a bit to get up and running to full capacity,” Pomianek said. “It’s exactly what the fresh produce industry needs to get product to market in a timely fashion.”

The service allows for less handling of the product, reducing bruised fruit and creating a greater environmental advantage because it takes less diesel to fuel a train, he said.

“I think it’s a pretty exciting opportunity,” Pomianek commented.