Railex LLC's New York facility right on track
Railex LLC's New York facility right on track
ROTTERDAM, NY -- Imagine a 110-story building and an 18-story building lying on their sides perpendicular to each other. This might give some idea of the sheer size of the new produce freight consolidation facility that Railex LLC, a division of ADS Management, is building here.
Construction is right on track on the 200,000-square-foot, state-of- the art transload facility, which Paul Esposito, Railex's general manager, expects to be completed in mid-September. The facility will receive a unit train from the company's other new facility that is also under construction in Wallula, WA.
"We expect the first train to arrive in the beginning of October," Mr. Esposito said.
Originally, Railex was looking at several sites in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, but Mr. Esposito said it chose to build the multi- million-dollar facility in Rotterdam due to "all of the synergies of truck, rail, building and town hitting at the same place. Rotterdam and Schenectady County have been very welcoming. We needed a location that was off an interstate as well as an expedited route for CSX. Given all the facets, Rotterdam was the place."
Mr. Esposito said that the mile-long train, which will consist of 55 new 64-foot ARMN railcars that are equipped with fresh air exchange, GPS tracking and temperature control, will be unloaded 14 cars at a time inside the cooled facility, thus maintaining the cold chain.
According to Railex's web site, railexusa.com, the unit train, which will be moved cross-country by Union Pacific and CSX, will arrive in Rotterdam five days after leaving the Wallula facility, guaranteeing availability of a minimum of 200 truckloads per week, year round. The train will also always remain intact, which will avoid shifting of products and potential time delays.
"Railex opens up a transportation lane that converts long haul to the rail system," he said. "We are not reinventing the wheel. The automobile, coal and grain industries use it now and quite successfully."
Mr. Esposito noted that the facility will have automatic dock levelers that have the ability to move five feet in each direction, allowing Railex to unload 50-foot transload cars. The building will contain six separate temperature-controlled rooms, a 65,000- square-foot packing facility and will have the ability to house 400 racked truckloads, allowing customers to "forward position" their inventories, manage them more efficiently and provide just-in-time deliveries.
"Our facility gives clients the possibility of expanding their distribution radius that would normally have gone LTL," he said. "For instance, a New York shipper could expand its distribution into New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New England, Montreal or even Maryland, [Washington] D.C. or even the [Pacific] Northwest."
According to Mr. Esposito, the train, which will be loaded in 36 hours, will depart Washington state on a Thursday and arrive in New York on a Tuesday. It will be unloaded in 24 hours and sent back to Wallula.
Since there are 110 cars in the system, while the first train is on its way back, another train will be departing Washington state to start the process all over again.
Mr. Esposito added that there would also be backhaul opportunities for the westbound train that would not be limited to just perishables and that the company is also exploring opportunities "for future expansion in other areas of the U.S."
Construction is right on track on the 200,000-square-foot, state-of- the art transload facility, which Paul Esposito, Railex's general manager, expects to be completed in mid-September. The facility will receive a unit train from the company's other new facility that is also under construction in Wallula, WA.
"We expect the first train to arrive in the beginning of October," Mr. Esposito said.
Originally, Railex was looking at several sites in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, but Mr. Esposito said it chose to build the multi- million-dollar facility in Rotterdam due to "all of the synergies of truck, rail, building and town hitting at the same place. Rotterdam and Schenectady County have been very welcoming. We needed a location that was off an interstate as well as an expedited route for CSX. Given all the facets, Rotterdam was the place."
Mr. Esposito said that the mile-long train, which will consist of 55 new 64-foot ARMN railcars that are equipped with fresh air exchange, GPS tracking and temperature control, will be unloaded 14 cars at a time inside the cooled facility, thus maintaining the cold chain.
According to Railex's web site, railexusa.com, the unit train, which will be moved cross-country by Union Pacific and CSX, will arrive in Rotterdam five days after leaving the Wallula facility, guaranteeing availability of a minimum of 200 truckloads per week, year round. The train will also always remain intact, which will avoid shifting of products and potential time delays.
"Railex opens up a transportation lane that converts long haul to the rail system," he said. "We are not reinventing the wheel. The automobile, coal and grain industries use it now and quite successfully."
Mr. Esposito noted that the facility will have automatic dock levelers that have the ability to move five feet in each direction, allowing Railex to unload 50-foot transload cars. The building will contain six separate temperature-controlled rooms, a 65,000- square-foot packing facility and will have the ability to house 400 racked truckloads, allowing customers to "forward position" their inventories, manage them more efficiently and provide just-in-time deliveries.
"Our facility gives clients the possibility of expanding their distribution radius that would normally have gone LTL," he said. "For instance, a New York shipper could expand its distribution into New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New England, Montreal or even Maryland, [Washington] D.C. or even the [Pacific] Northwest."
According to Mr. Esposito, the train, which will be loaded in 36 hours, will depart Washington state on a Thursday and arrive in New York on a Tuesday. It will be unloaded in 24 hours and sent back to Wallula.
Since there are 110 cars in the system, while the first train is on its way back, another train will be departing Washington state to start the process all over again.
Mr. Esposito added that there would also be backhaul opportunities for the westbound train that would not be limited to just perishables and that the company is also exploring opportunities "for future expansion in other areas of the U.S."
