Virginia Ports see rail volume climb

Virginia Ports see rail volume climb    The Virginia Port Authority said it saw substantial gains in rail volume in the past six months.
   From July 2007 to February 2008, VPA's rail volume to and from the Midwest increased 20 percent to 345,128 TEUs compared to the year-earlier period.

Capozzi

   'In the last five to seven years our rail business to the Virginia Inland Port (VIP) and our dedicated Midwest traffic has grown and we have posted some double-digit increases, but these are some of the best numbers we have ever posted,' said Thomas Capozzi, VPA's director of marketing.
   Capozzi said export cargo, driven by the weak dollar, was a large part of the reason for the increase in the Midwest rail traffic.
   'Cargo that normally isn't put into containers — grain from the Midwest for example — is now being boxed for export,' Capozzi said.
   The agency said its Virginia Inland Port, a rail terminal in the Shenandoah Valley town of Front Royal, handled 46,139 TEUs, a 36.7 percent increase from the same period in 2007. It said this was due to a boom in imports moving to distribution centers in the region.
   Capozzi said the port expects further increases in rail traffic due to the weak dollar, overall growth at the port, and the 2009 or early 2010 opening of the Heartland Corridor direct double-stack rail route to Columbus, Ohio.