O’ little port of Bethlehem

A proposal for the development of an inland port in the eastern Pennsylvania town of Bethlehem is being floated by the Port of New York and New Jersey in an effort to relieve pressure on the busiest port on the U.S. East Coast.    Development of an inland port in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, about 90 miles west of the Port of New York and New Jersey is under consideration, but it is unclear if or how soon such a facility will come to fruition.
   Randy Bayles, director of international intermodal for Norfolk Southern Corp., referenced the plan during a panel discussion earlier this month at the Cargo Logistics America conference.
   Bayles noted Norfolk Southern Railway has partnered with several ports in their efforts in the past to develop such inland ports, which are typically a short haul from a port when compared to most intermodal moves.
   “They recognize the need to want to relieve stress around their gates and around the inland infrastructure or at the terminals, so we can provide outlet for them to relieve some of that pressure,” he said.
   Colin McEvoy, director of communications at the Lehigh Valley Economic Development Commission, which markets economic assets in the region, said the idea of an inland port in Bethlehem has been the subject of talks “for quite some time.”
   The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and LVEDC have held active discussions in the past about the concept of a new rail intermodal service between the port and the city of Bethlehem, and in September, officials from the port traveled to Bethlehem to update them on recent developments at the port.
   McEvoy said Lehigh Valley Rail Management, which operates a shortline railroad in the region, including a railyard in Bethlehem, needs to strike a deal with Lehigh Valley Industrial Park to lease or buy land for expansion.
    The two sides have been negotiating, and “we believe a deal can be struck,” he said. “Once that agreement is reached, the expansion can happen fairly quickly, probably as early as next year.”
   But Lauren E. Sabatino, business development manager, said, “It’s not really being looked at closely, it’s just been talked about” and would not comment further.
   Lehigh Valley Industrial Park did not immediately return a call for comment.
   McEvoy said 3,000 containers a week are brought by the Norfolk Southern to the intermodal railyard in Bethlehem, mostly from domestic locations such as Memphis and St. Louis, and put onto trucks.
   With the widening of the Panama Canal likely to increase the amount of cargo moving into the Port of New York and New Jersey, and terminals there already congested, “we see that as an opportunity for Lehigh Valley to build its own inland port to handle the overflow,” he explained.
   The area around Bethlehem and Allentown has many warehouses that now receive cargo from the port by truck and an expanded railyard could be “a unique opportunity to increase trade volume and reduce truck traffic from our highways as well.” McEvoy said a third of U.S. consumers are within a one day drive from the region, which has added 5,000 e-commerce jobs in last four years.
   The Port of New York and New Jersey has long discussed inland ports, proposing in 2000 a “port inland distribution network” that would shunt some of the port’s container traffic to satellite locations by barge, rail and tandem trailer. The port even collaborated with the Port of Rotterdam, which has an extensive inland network using barge and rail.
   A barge service ran for several years between the port’s container marine terminals in New Jersey and Albany, New York, but eventually shut down.
   On the current proposal for an inland port in Bethlehem, a Port Authority of New York and New Jersey spokesman said this month “the Lehigh Valley EDC is still working to build support for this initiative, but there are no new developments from our end.”