(The Shippensburg Sentinel posted the following story by Linda Franz on its website on April 23.)
SHIPPENSBURG, Pa. — A proposed plan by CSX Transportation Inc. could create an intermodal yard in Guilford Township off the Wayne Avenue exit of Interstate 81.
Mike Ross, president of Franklin County Area Development Corp., says such a facility would allow double-stacked trains from other parts of the country to come in and unload their containers directly to tractor-trailers to be taken to distribution centers serving the east coast.
Ross expects the trains would come from the West Coast and would pick up goods coming primarily by ship.
“It would have a very significant economic impact on this region, essentially from Carlisle to Winchester,” Ross says.
“Anyone who has to move product and is looking at creating a distribution outlet for themselves on the east coast, having this intermodal yard would be a significant factor.”
Sensitivity required
Not only would such a facility bring more distribution centers to the area, it would help lower operating costs of centers already here, Ross says.
But CSX would need to create a yard that would have the least impact on the surrounding area, he says, by being sensitive to noise and lighting.
“The proximity to I-81 is about as close as you could be – a minute, a minute and a half by truck,” Ross says.
The whole concept of intermodal yards is to cut down on truck traffic, he says.
While such facilities might cut down on total truck traffic nationally, they increase local truck traffic near the facility.
Guilford supervisor Greg Cook says the township has yet to see a plan from CSX but he and a zoning officer met with a CSX real estate agent about a month ago. Cook says he understands about 115 acres are involved.
“Certainly we want to know about the traffic they’re going to create,” he says.
Supervisors don’t want trucks from the facility using country roads. “We want the vehicles on Kriner Road,” Cook says.
The proposed intermodal yard sits on land currently zoned ag residential. It would require a zoning change to commer-cial/industrial.