The New York State Department of Transportation has selected an active rail yard in the town of DeWitt as the location for a central New York inland port. This comes after years of waiting for a decision on a few different sites.
The inland port would receive freight by rail from the Port of New York and New Jersey, to be distributed by trucks.
A final report commissioned by the state DOT selected the CSX DeWitt Yard. That is the location that 3Gi, a company that owns 200 acres next to the existing freight yard, has been pushing. 3Gi could build warehousing and distribution.
The report said the DeWitt Yard was selected because it was the only site with a commitment for rail service. The state now has to negotiate with CSX railways. CSX would need to provide daily train service for the inland port to be successful. The port could save $500 per shipping container. The number of potential jobs speculated over the years ranged from a few hundred to 2,000. The report said there is no way to know for sure.
The inland port was a $40 million proposal in the Central New York Regional Economic Development Council’s Upstate Revitalization Initiative grant. Council co-chair Rob Simpson pushed to have it located in Camillus because he said it could attract large-scale warehousing and distribution. CSX said it was not interested in providing service to that location. Now, the funding for the inland port will come from the state’s rail infrastructure grants and state officials said it will cost much less than $40 million.
