Plans for creating an inland cargo port in the central New York remain in limbo. The proposal for an inland port was part of an Upstate Revitalization Initiative grant , that the Central New York Regional Economic Development Council won in 2015.
And after some initial questions about location, council co-chair Rob Simpson says there continues to be strong interest from Camillus to host the port, in a location along the CSX railroad line. But the roadblock right now, says Simpson, is coming from Albany.
“There needs to be a serious conversation between the folks in New York state and the railroad, who is a critical partner in the discussion,” Simpson said. “What we want to see from a community standpoint -- that aligns very much with the upstate revitalization initiative -- is a site that has significant scale such that we can attract large scale warehousing and manufacturing distribution investments in central New York. We think the site in Camillus is ideal for that.”
In the meantime, Simpson says central New York has lost opportunities to bring business to the area. He contends there is ample container traffic in New York and New Jersey to help support a viable inland port in upstate New York, so the idea still makes sense.
