APM Terminals to bring Canadian National Railway to Mobile

[Hans Reints]

 APM Terminals is expanding by building a 70 acre facility where shipping containers will be transferred to rail cars. So far one rail line has agreed to come to the Port City. Canadian National Railway, or CN will expand it's rail lines to Mobile. The line will run from Mobile to Memphis, to Chicago.According to the Alabama Port Authority, APM Terminals has spent $42 million dollars locally to construct the facility and the construction has provided more than 300 jobs directly.The site is expected to be ready for business by June 2016. According to APM Terminals, they'll also be adding larger cranes to the Mobile skyline by 2017."It's another step in something we've had planned for over 10 years," said Jimmy Lyons with the Alabama Port Authority. He says currently most goods are trucked out of Alabama, but rail is more efficient and environmentally friendly."Four times more environmentally friendly than truck transportation so this enables us to grow the terminal without putting additional congestion on the highways," Lyons said.Containers will come into the port by boat, then they'll be unloaded and trucked about a half mile to the new site where the containers will be loaded onto rail cars.John Orr with CN says Mobile was an easy choice for expansion."It's got a great draft, lots of dockage space and lots of capacity to take on new business and a real dynamic group like New Orleans who really want to do well for the American economy," Orr said.An APM Terminals spokesman says he thinks in about a year, several more rail lines will see the potential in the Port City and will want to make a stop in Mobile, too.
^{Source : fox10tv}